From public radio producer, Nate DiMeo, comes The Memory Palace, a finalist for the 2016 Peabody Award and one of iTunes Best Podcast of 2015. Short, surprising stories of the past, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hysterical, often a little bit of both. 'The most potent pieces of audio being produced today.' - The AvClub thememorypalace.us (http://thememorypalace.us) The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm (http://radiotopia.fm)
Episode 211: Cutting and Ned
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Je ne pas si c’est tout le monde - Theme Comedie from Vincent Delerm’s score to the film of the same, long name.
Forbin’s Hi Fi from Michel Colombier’s score to Colossus: The Forbin Project
Boo’s Lullaby by Maria Chiara Agriro and Jamie Leeming
Helle (Ballade) from the great Phillipe Sarde score to that picture.
L’Espagne pour memoire from Michel Portal’s score to Un et a la garoupe
The Rain Never Stops on Venus by Michael Wollney
Je t’ai meme pas dit by Vincent Delerm.
From a Dream by Oregon
A version of Narcisus for Clarinet and Electronics as played by Thea Musgrave.
Notes
Good sources if you want to know more are Peter Manseau’s book about spirit photography and the spiritualist age (Cutting intersects interestingly with that crea), The Apparitionists, as well as this article by Jerry Ryan about the history of aquariums in Boston.
1/14/2024 • 17 minutes, 37 seconds
Smoky and Bill, a Holiday Card
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
This is a special holiday bonus episode, a sequel to Episode 210. You’ll want to listen to that one first.
Music
The Parisienne by the Henri Crolla Ensemble
Violette… by Philippe Sarde
Gift by Makasuta Takagi
The Sammy Herman Sextet plays The Bells of St. Mary’s
12/23/2023 • 8 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 210: Bill and Smoky
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
I Believe in the Night by Keith Kenniff
Improvisations sur les folies d’Espagne (extraits) from Marin Marais and Jordi Savall
Finally by Lambert
Voltige by Marin Lizotte
Violin Solo no. 1 by Peter Broderick
Fratres fur violin und klavier by Avro Part as played by Ursula Schloch and Marcel Worms
Dungen by Henrik Lindstom
Notes
There are plenty of places to go to read about Smoky and Bill but why would want to go anywhere else than his book, Yorkie Doodle Dandy?
12/1/2023 • 18 minutes, 14 seconds
Episode 120: The Prairie Chicken in Wisconsin: Highlights of a Study of Counts, Behavior, Turnover, Movement, and Habitat
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
We move between three different pieces from Camille Saint-Saens': Suite, Op. 90: II Menuet, and two from Carnival of the Animals:Aviary and the Cuckoo in the Heart of the Woods.
We hit Juneau from Danny Bensi and Sander Jurriaans' score to Wildlike.
And The Waltz from their score to 5 to 7.
And there's a total gem from George Mukabi called Dila Ni Dila in there too.
Notes
Do yourself a favor and read Frances Hamerstrom's autobiography, My Double Life: Memoirs of a Naturalist.
Do your kids a favor and Jeannine Atkins take on Frances in her book Girls Who Looked Under Rocks.
And then watch Frances teach David Letterman how to cook a snake.
11/17/2023 • 18 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 209: Wake
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Dave Pajo/Aerial M does Plastic Energy Man
Patricia Rossborough played To a Wild Rose
Mal Waldron plays Warm Canto
We hear Muff Gets a Share from Joel P. West’s score to Band of Robbers
We hear another song I absolutely love, Turned Out I Was Everyone, by Sasami
We finish on Popcorn and Life from Ben Sollee’s lovely score to Maidentrip.
10/7/2023 • 16 minutes, 29 seconds
Episode 208: In the Gallery
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
The Theory by Clem Leek
Hiddensee by Caeys
The Clock Tower by Hampshire and Foat
Notes
If you want to know more about Gardner, I’d suggest Witness to an Era: the Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner, by Mark Katz.
On Brady, Matthew Brady: Portraits of a Nation, by Robert Wilson.
I’d also suggest reading the New York Times’ review of the exhibit. It’s pretty stunning.
9/21/2023 • 12 minutes, 6 seconds
Episode 207: The Six Triple Eight
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Inception by radio.string.quintet.vienna
Julie With by Group Listening
Nice Breeze Isn’t It? by friend of the show, Simon Rackham
Wet by Taylor Deupree
Times Like This II by Jean Kopperud and Stephen Gosling
Broad Channel by Bing and Ruth
Cradle (with Akira) by ghost and tape
Lithosphere by Caoimhin O Raghellagh
and by Caoimhin O Raghelagh and Thomas Bartlett
Notes
You can find the website I mentioned here; it’s a one-stop shop, really, for information on the 6888t. .
9/9/2023 • 14 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode 206: The Thundering Herd, The Vanishing American
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Halcyon and Photosynteses and Embryo by H. Takehashi
Intro by Library Tapes
The Florist Wears Knee Breeches by M. Sage
Notes
I found Andrew Isenberg's book, The Destruction of the Bison, An Environmental History, completely fascinating.
If you want to do a deep dive on Madison Grant, I'd recommend Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant by John Peter Spiro.
If you want to do a deep dive on the Catalina Buffalo, this site is a fun place to start.
8/17/2023 • 18 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 79: Artist in Landscape
This show is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
This episode was originally released in November, 2015.
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth’s Modesty Blaise score.
* They first meet to a piece called Brouillard (version 1) from Georges Delaure’s extraordinary score to Jules et Jim. (A second version comes in later when J.J. Audubon is living the high life in England).
* We also hear Waltz by Mother Falcon.
* I go back to the Marcelo Zarvos/Please Give well when the Scotsman arrives at their store. Note: it’s the go-to soundtrack for “People Arriving at One’s Store With A Life Changing Proposition” here at the Memory Palace. Also: go watch Please Give.
* The little piano piece is from Nathan Johnson’s score to The Day I Saw Your Heart.
* Lucy and John titter like plovers to Andrew Cyrille’s dope, skittering drums on Nuba 1.
* The especially sad bit, right before the end is Dream 3 (in the Midst of my Life), from Max Richter’s giant, From Sleep album.
* A couple times, including the ending, we hear “the Lark Ascending” from Ralph Vaughn Willliams. It is beautiful. You should buy it.
Notes
As per usual, I read a lot about the Audubons and the Bakewells.
I relied most upon the charming and smart, On the Road with John James Audubon by Mary Durant, and Carolyn DeLatte’s lovely, thoughtful book, Lucy Audubon: a Biography.
* Just a quick note: there’s a very enjoyable PBS/American Masters/Nature documentary about Audubon. It’s a fun and informative watch. But, I’ll say, you come out of that thinking that things were fundamentally swell between Lucy and John in a way that I’m not entirely sure is supported by the facts. Or jibes with, you know, human nature.
7/22/2023 • 24 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 90: 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.
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
6/12/2023 • 12 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 205: Alice Ramsay
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Pollen and Photosynteses by H. Takehashi
Ediacaran Moonrise by Barry Walker, Jr.
To the Cellar from Krzysztof Komeda’s wonderful score to The Fearless Vampire Killers.
Blue Sutura from Piero Piccioni’s score to Il medico della mutua.
3-Sized PF and Let’s Go Crazy!, both by Takahiro Kido
Emerald Ash by Golden Brown
Merry-Go-Round by Domenique Dumont
Aquel Senor by the mighty, Frankie Reyes
Tesko Me Ja Zaboravit Tebe by Banko Mataja
Notes
You can read the article by Katherin Parkin here.
6/3/2023 • 18 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 204: Wolves
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
In My Heaven All Faucets Have Fountains by yes/and
A snippet of Runaway from Olafur Arnauld’s score to Gimme Shelter
Spectral Canon from Conlon Nancarrow from James Tenney
The Hourglass by Ben Crosland.
4/10/2023 • 12 minutes, 28 seconds
episode 76: Mary Walker Would Wear what she Wanted
This episode was originally released in 2015.
Proceeds from this episode are being donated to the Transgender Law Center.
Music
*Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth’s Modesty Blaise score.
*The piece opens with Rainfall, by David Darling and Michael Jones.
*Her brief love story is scored by Nathan Johnson’s Penelope’s Theme from his score to The Brothers Bloom.
*When she lands her first gig, we start Garde a Vue, and roll into Le Roi de coeur, from Chantal Martineau.
* The vibraphone piece is “Opening” by Nathaniel Bartlett.
* The recurring violin piece is called Geometria del Universo by the one-named Colleen.
* It ends on Romain’s First Love, again by Georges Delarue, from his fantastic score to Promise at Dawn.
Notes
* I read a lot about Mary, but by far the most useful and most thorough works I came upon were: Sharon M. Harris’ Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical and A Woman of Honor: Dr. Mary E. Walker and the Civil War, in which author Mercedes Graf does a great job walking the reader through Walker’s unpublished memoir.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
3/10/2023 • 14 minutes, 21 seconds
Episode 67: Every Night Ever
This episode was originally released in summer of 2015.
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth’s Modesty Blaise score.
* Then, we have the most obvious crickets/summer night song ever: the fantastic, perpetually delightful Green Arrow from Yo La Tengo’s I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, which has soundtracked many crickety summer nights for me over the years.
* The cops roll in to a loop of the very beginning of the epic Ptah, the El Daoud, the title track to Alice Coltrane’s album from 1970.
* Then we have a mix of two improvisations from Charles Cohen’s “Brother I Prove You Wrong”: Cloud Hands and The Boy and the Snake Dance.
* There’s a brief dip into Dorian, by Fang Island.
* The jaunty accordion, typewriter thing is Biking is Better on Wintergatan’s eponymous album.
Notes
I researched this one primarily through old newspapers. The easiest place to find a number of them is to read the excellent site, The Museum of Hoaxes’ page on this event. Also: if you’re in the Atlanta area and ever want to have yourself a day, you can see the actual monkey. It’s preserved in a jar at the Georgia Bureau of Investigations museum in Decatur Georgia.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
2/17/2023 • 12 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 148: Safe Passage
This episode was originally released in September of 2019.
Music
We start with the Opening of Craig Armstrong’s score to Far From the Madding Crowd.
Glass Houses no. 13 from Ann Southam.
Earring from Julia Wolf.
Occam II for Violin from Eliane Radigue.
Rearranging Furniture from Gabriel Yared’s score to By the Sea.
A bit of Movement II from Martynov, “Come in!” by Vladimir Martynov.
Notes
Plenty written about the Willie D.. I found Roger Branfill-Cook’s Torpedo: the Most Revolutionary Weapon in Naval History to be particularly useful.
I also enjoyed stumbling upon this day-by-day breakdown of F.D.R.’s Presidency.
1/28/2023 • 15 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 94: Numbers (rebroadcast)
This episode was originally released in August 2016
Note
* Here’s a link to watch an excerpt of the CBS news break.
* One of my favorite things I came across while reading up on the lottery was this site, which includes a remarkable page where folks send in their personal stories of their draft experience.
Music
* Elevator Song by Keaton Henson (feat. Ren Ford)
* Waves by Abby Gundersen
1/17/2023 • 12 minutes, 6 seconds
Nate's episode of the year 2022: In France or in Heaven
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Blithe Field does RD 1
O Venezia, Venuga, Venusia by Nino Rota
Carthage by Hayden Perdido
Nice Breeze, Isn’t It? from Simon Rackham
Mystere by amiina
Blithe Field also does Racing Backward
as well as Prelude
12/26/2022 • 22 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 203: The News from Thar
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Mongali as played by the mighty Tabu Ley Rochereu
2nd Season by Takahiro Kido
Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite: 5 Cloudburst as performed by the Detroit Symphony
Nero’s Nocturne by Chilly Gonzalez. Man, that guy is great. You should buy his music.
Opening Titles from Jeff Grace’s score to In the Valley of Violence
Morris Visits Dr. Pratt from John Barry’s score to The Wrong Box
Gift from Masakatsu Takagi’s score to The Boy and the Beast
Nurse Janet from Ludwig Goransson’s score to Everything, Everythin
Notes
My favorite resources on frontier press stuff is by Barbara Cloud, The Coming of the Frontier Press, How the West was Really Won.
12/16/2022 • 11 minutes, 29 seconds
Episode 202: Better Babies
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
LBS by Duval Timothy
My Favourites, pt. 2 by Patricia Rossborough
Sad Seine by Lambert
Vals Efter Lasse I Lyby by Lofoten Cello Duo
11/28/2022 • 10 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 201: One Fruit
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Strength of a Young Man by Vernon Field
Wave I by Elori Saxl
Rearranging Furniture from Gabriel Yared’s score to By the Sea
Falling Forever and Ever by Ricky Eat Acid
Muff Gets a Share from Joel P West’s score to Band of Robbers
Notes
By far the most fun I had researching this was reading Kaori O’Conner’s Pineapple: A Global History. Really a lovely little book.
11/17/2022 • 15 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 200: Ghost Story
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Rauelsson plays Mom, in Ukraine
Group Listening plays Julie With
Richard Birkin plays Vigil II
Colleen plays Les Ondes Silencieueses
Taylor Deupree and Marcus Fischer play Bell
The Ensemble Rescerche plays Morton Feldman’s Something Wild in the City: Mary Ann’s Theme
10/22/2022 • 16 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 199: Nee Blinky
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Sunset Village by Group Listening
Winter Memory by Dark Dark Dark
Pretty in Plums by Shida Shihabi
With a little bit of The Crumbling by Valgeir Sigurossen
Afternoon in Paris by the incomparable John Lewis
Abstrutions from Max Roach
And Herbert’s Story from Mark Orton’s score to Nebraska
9/29/2022 • 13 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 198: Weather Conditions Above Mount Fuji
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Arrival by by Domenique Dumont
Bouquet by Bobby Hutcherson
Last Dance by No Vacation
Channels Passing by Paul Dresher
Dilo 4 by Emika
The Kronos Quartet plays II from Phillip Glass’ second string quartet, “Company.”
9/2/2022 • 12 minutes, 7 seconds
Episode 115: A Brief Eulogy for a Commercial Radio Station
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
This episode was originally released in October of 2017 and was produced with engineering assistance from Elizabeth Aubert.
Music
Sunrise Through the Dusty Nebula by Hannah Peel
Keep by Nils Frahm
Horizon Variations by Max Richter
She cycles through: Where or When by Hal Kemp & His Orchestra, Smarty (You Know it All) by Fats Waller, Dear Mr. Gable: You Made Me Love You by Judy Garland, Hellhounds on My Trail by Robert Johnson, and The Big Apple by Tommy Dorsey and his Clambake Seven.
Future Waves by Uther Moads.
And Vapour Trail by Ride, forever.
8/21/2022 • 13 minutes, 13 seconds
Episode 124: Junk Room
The Memory Palace is a member of Radiotopia from PRX.
This episode was originally released in the spring of 2018. It’s being re-released today because Nate’s on book leave for the summer.
Music
We start off with Theme de Simon from Georges Delerue.
Go to Alpine Sketch from Christian Loffler’s Young Alaska.
Hear some of Three Dances: II Pavane arranged for the Chromos Tuba Quartet.
The Plum Blossom from Yusuf Lateef’s great Eastern Sounds record.
Juve & Fandor by amiina.
The Unquestioned Answer by Laura Spiegel.
Etude by Joep Beving.
Rainfall by David Darling and Michael Jones.
7/21/2022 • 14 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 91: Natural Habitat
The Memory Palace is a member of Radiotopia from PRX.
This episode was originally released in July of 2016. It’s being re-released today because Nate’s on book leave for the summer and because it’s a total banger.
Notes and Reading:
* I came to this story the old fashioned way (for me): I saw Su Lin at the Field Museum and needed to know more. That led me inevitably to Vicki Croke's The Lady and the Panda from 2006. It's a terrific read. If you have any interest at all in learning more about Ruth Harkness, that's the place to go. I've got a few quibbles here and there, but, for real, it's delightful.
* Quentin Young's (slightly strange and contested) version of events is told in Chasing the Panda by Michael Kiefer.
* If you've got a few hundred bucks (or a library with more liberal lending policies with old books than mine), why not read Ruth's own book, The Baby Giant Panda?
* If you're interested in zoos writ large, I'm a fan of Animal Attractions: Nature on Display in American Zoos by Elizabeth Hansen.
Music:
* We start with Hush-Maker by Moon Ate the Dark.
* Roll on with Freudian Slippers by Chilly Gonzales.
* Hear Bibio's Cherry Blossom Road a couple of times.
* Hit up Nice Dream by radio.string.quartet.vienna
* Hear Don Redman and his Orchestra play Blue Eyed Baby from Memphis.
* The centerpiece of the middle section is Snow Again by Lambert.
* We hear a couple of pieces by Dan Romer: An Old Fashioned Man and End of the World.
* We finish up on Lullatone's Falling Asleep With a Book on Your Chest.
7/8/2022 • 27 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 197: Kiddo
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Arrival by Dominique Dumont
Bouquet by Bobby Hutcherson off of his phenomenal album, Happenings.
Wrench and Numbers from Jeff Russo’s score to Fargo, the FX show.
Melodrames telegraphies (in B flat Major 7th), part 1 by Brian McBride
Kembang Andyani from the Gamelan Orchestra
6/23/2022 • 15 minutes, 7 seconds
Episode 90: 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.
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
6/12/2022 • 13 minutes, 39 seconds
Episode 152: Let it Snow
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
This episode originally appeared in the winter of 2019.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
Still Space by Satoshi Ashikawa.
5/28/2022 • 15 minutes, 47 seconds
Episode 196: In France or in Heaven
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Blithe Field does RD 1
O Venezia, Venuga, Venusia by Nino Rota
Carthage by Hayden Perdido
Nice Breeze, Isn’t It? from Simon Rackham
Mystere by amiina
Blithe Field also does Racing Backward
as well as Prelude
5/18/2022 • 20 minutes, 7 seconds
Episode 195: A New Bronze Man
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
The Return by Library Tapes
Erased Duet by Valgeir Sigurdossen
3-sized PF by Takahiro Kido
Vals Efter Lasser I Lyby by Lofoton Cello Duo
Notes
Totally recommend Bruce Levine’s Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice.
I encourage you to check out the Thaddeus Stevens Society.
4/30/2022 • 13 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 194: Small Sample
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Dance PM from Horishi Yoshimura
Amor - C.B. Rework by Clark
Here’s What You’re Missin by Bing and Ruth
Meredith Monk’s Ellis Island as played by Bruce Brubaker
Alto Paraiso by Aukai
Opening from Nathaniel Bartlett
Rivers That you Cannot See by North Americans
First of the Tide by Erland Cooper featuring Benge
Notes
The episode old episode I mention in the credits as a companion to this one is here.
Most of the biographical details in this were found in the official biography written for the National Academy of Sciences by his Uranium-hunting colleague, George Tilton, and a terrific, entertaining oral history interview.
Also, if you’ve left episode in the mode where you’d just like to know some more, I came across this old Mental Floss article by Lucas Reilly that I thought did a particularly good job of weaving a lot of the back story (some of which I’d covered before in the Midgely episode linked above) into Patterson’s story. Just wanted to shine a light on it.
4/11/2022 • 14 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 101: Promise
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
This episode was originally released in December of 2016
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.
Music
Starts with Christope Beck and DeadMono’s theme to Charlie Countryman.
Prelude for HS by Hakon Stene.
Tezeta (Nostalgia) from Malatu Astatke, from Ethiopiques vol. 4, one of my favorite pieces of music in the world.
Marian Lapansky plays Camille Saint-Saens “Le Sygne.”
Which fights with Piero Umiliani’s Danza Primitiva.
Warren Ellis rounds it out with his Lale’s Theme from his terrific score to Mustang (which you should totally see).
The Hazel Scott pieces can be found here and here.
Notes
I first heard about Hazel Scott while reading Rad American Women from A to Z to my daughter. It’s a wonderful book. You should buy it for any kid in your life.
I read a lot about Hazel, but Karen Chilton’s biography, Hazel Scott: A Pioneering Jazz Pianist from Cafe Society to HUAC was essential.
3/18/2022 • 19 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 193: Classmates (Making Trouble)
This episode of The Memory Palace is a part of Radiotopia’s winter fundraiser. Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories. Donate today at https://on.prx.org/3uERfBv. Thank you!
Music
Fragment I by Library Tapes
Don’t Forget to Breathe Eh by Kelpe
Here I Am, Two Warships by Spirituals
Elfe by Dario Lessing
Jahrzeit from American Contemporary Music Ensemble
Alarm Will Sound’s version of Jynweythek ylow
2400 by Martyn Hynes
Notes
I found a couple of books particularly useful if you want to learn more about Barbara Johns. Richard Kluger’s classic Simple Justice and a really lovely book for younger readers called The Girl From the Tar Paper School by Teri Kanefield.
2/25/2022 • 16 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode 192: Combinations
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Romantic Lullaby by Simon Rackham
Happy Whistler by Group Listening.
The Return by Library Tapes
2/9/2022 • 8 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 191: Crash
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Time Beat by Ray Cathode
Rabbits of the Void by Tomaga
Weightless by the Neil Cowley Trio
Scenes from the Poet’s Dreams I: Racing Through the Stars by The Lark Quartet
Switchcraft by Chilly Gonzalez
Sky Breaking, Clouds Falling by Mason Lindahl
Notes
There’s a ton written about The Crash at Crush but the one I’d recommend is Train Crash at Crush, Texas: America’s Deadliest Publicity Stunt, by Mike Cox
1/23/2022 • 19 minutes, 13 seconds
Nate's Favorite Episode of 2021: Betty Robinson
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.
This episode was originally released as Episode 184: Betty Robinson in July of 2021.
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.
Music
Pollen by H.Takahashi and, later, Photosynthese.
The New York Herald Tribune by Martial Solal
Trying Something Again, Again by Lullatone
Wiffle Ball from Joel P. West’s score for Short Term 12
The title theme to Cani Arrabbiati
Increase by David Lang and Alarm Will Sound
Nijuichi by Sylvain Chaveau
Occam II for Violin by Eliane Radigue
Drunken Aviator by the (great, truly) Ida.
Eyes Closed and Travelling by Peter Broderick
Notes
If you are looking to read more about Betty, I’d suggest Rosanne Montillo’s terrific book, Fire on the Track.
12/27/2021 • 27 minutes, 9 seconds
Episode 190: The Ride
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
How to be Invisible, by Thruppence.
Motion by Peter Sandberg.
Art Blakey’s magical, Come out and See Me Tonight
And, of course, So What, from Kind of Blue
Notes
I relied a lot on this extensive oral history interview from The Smithsonian.
12/10/2021 • 12 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 189: New England Granite
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Midnight Moon from Annalisa Tornfelt and Gideon Fraudmann’s album, Spring Breakup: Songs for Alaska.
A couple of numbers from Marcelo Zarvos’ wonderful score to the wonderful, Please Give.
A remarkable piece of music called Spectacle of Ritual by Kali Malone
And another called Pauvre Simon from Sylvain Chauveau
11/24/2021 • 17 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 188: Spirits
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Feminist from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurrian’s score to Christine.
Under Siege from the great Warren Ellis’ score to Mustang
Warm Canto from Mal Waldren
M is for Man, Music, Mozart: the Eisenstein Song from Louis Andriessen’s De Stijl album.
The them to Le Doulo from Paul Misraki
Manny Returns Home from Bernard Hermann’s score to the Wrong Man
11/10/2021 • 13 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 187: The Woods
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.
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.
Music
By the Ash Tree and Semolina by Slow Meadow
Opals by Catching Flies
Mechanical Fair by Ola Kvernberg and the Trondheim Singers
La Copla by the great Atahualpa Yupanqui
Holm Sound by Erland Cooper
Notes
You can find the original recordings, photos, and film clips taken on the 1935 expedition and after in the remarkable online library of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Of the many books on the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, the one I enjoyed and relied upon most here is Phillip Hoose’s The Race to Save the Good Lord Bird.
10/23/2021 • 17 minutes, 6 seconds
Episode 63: Other Bodies
This episode was originally released in October, 2014.
The music in this one: “An Ending, A Beginning” by Dustin O’Halloran. “I am Piano” by Peter Broderick. Two songs from the soundtrack to “With a Song in my Heart”: American Medley, and That Old Feeling. The one at the end is “I’ll Never be the Same.” My version’s on a collection called “Can’t get out of this Mood.” There are also a couple of other Jane things that I found on You Tube. The plane crash stuff is scored by a piece of Claudia Serne and Leopold Ross’ soundtrack for “Broken City,” called “Missing Pieces.” Then there’s a sound by The Caretaker called “Stairway to the Stars.”
I read a lot about Jane for this but nothing was as useful as Ilene Stone’s lovely book, “Jane Froman: Missouri’s First Lady of Song.”
10/8/2021 • 17 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 186: Shining
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.
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.
Music
Mother's Love by The Vernon Spring
Avinu Malkenu by Lofoten Cello Duo
Vakenatt by Daniel Herskedal
Computer Love by Balenescu Quartet
Sunshine on Fish Skin by Girls in Airports
Cabiria e el ragioniere from Nino Rota's score to Nights of Cabiria
9/22/2021 • 13 minutes
Episode 185: The Life and Works of a Monumental Figure
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.
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.
Music
Honesty by Thrupence
El Noi de la Mare, Eldegard by Lofoten Cello Duo
2400 by Martyn Hyne
White Light by Chihei Hatekeyama
Valse Efter Valle I Lybe by Lofoten Cello Duo
Notes
There's obviously nearly-infinite amounts to read about Jane Addams. I found Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy by Louise Knight particularly useful.
9/3/2021 • 11 minutes, 54 seconds
Memory Palace Summer Reading: The Great Gatsby, part 3
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
In lieu of my usual re-runs filling out August, I’m doing something different: a full-reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, presented in three parts.This is part 2.
Music for Gatsby was composed and performed by Mary Lattimore. Find and buy her music at marylattimoreharpist.bandcamp.com
The cover art is from Jen Corace. See more of Jen’s work at jencorace.com.
Back with the third and final part on August 19th. Back with new episodes of The Memory Palace in September.
8/19/2021 • 1 hour, 39 minutes, 39 seconds
Memory Palace Summer Reading: The Great Gatsby, Part 2
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
In lieu of my usual re-runs filling out August, I’m doing something different: a full-reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, presented in three parts.This is part 2.
Music for Gatsby was composed and performed by Mary Lattimore. Find and buy her music at marylattimoreharpist.bandcamp.com
The cover art is from Jen Corace. See more of Jen’s work at jencorace.com.
Back with the third and final part on August 19th. Back with new episodes of The Memory Palace in September.
8/12/2021 • 1 hour, 15 minutes, 21 seconds
Memory Palace Summer Reading: The Great Gatsby, Part 1
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
In lieu of my usual re-runs filling out August, I’m doing something different: a full-reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, presented in three parts.
Music for Gatsby was composed and performed by Mary Lattimore. Find and buy her music at marylattimoreharpist.bandcamp.com
The cover art is from Jen Corace. See more of Jen’s work at jencorace.com.
Back with part two on August 12th.
8/6/2021 • 1 hour, 28 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 184: Betty Robinson
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.
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.
Music
Pollen by H.Takahashi and, later, Photosynthese.
The New York Herald Tribune by Martial Solal
Trying Something Again, Again by Lullatone
Wiffle Ball from Joel P. West’s score for Short Term 12
The title theme to Cani Arrabbiati
Increase by David Lang and Alarm Will Sound
Nijuichi by Sylvain Chaveau
Occam II for Violin by Eliane Radigue
Drunken Aviator by the (great, truly) Ida.
Eyes Closed and Travelling by Peter Broderick
Notes
If you are looking to read more about Betty, I’d suggest Rosanne Montillo’s terrific book, Fire on the Track.
7/18/2021 • 25 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 183: Goblins
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.
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.
Music
Wasser by H.Takahashi
7/4/2021 • 14 minutes, 1 second
Episode 182: The Surfmen
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.
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.
Music:
Flowering Jasmine as performed by Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Batica.
Kaspburger by Clogs
20 (Lichen) by Berndan Eder Ensemble
Fall Again by Duval Timothy, Lil Silva and Melanie Faye.
Wurzer by H.Takahashi
Bone Collector by Julian Lage and Chris Etheridge
Titan’s Island by Ancient Oceans
Notes:
My favorite account (among many) of Richard Etheridge and the story of the Pea Island Surfmen is Fire on the Beach by David Wright and David Zoby.
6/5/2021 • 18 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 181: The Adventures of Pearl
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music:
Suite from A Hatful of Rain from the GOAT, Bernard Herrmann
Sexfaldur from amiina
Piano 1 from Emily Sprague
Earring from Julia Wolfe and Lisa Moore
The Squirrel, from Herrmann’s score to The Three Worlds of Gulliver
All in Circles by Shida Shinabi
Them by Nils Frahm
5/23/2021 • 16 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 180: Tracks
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music:
Rosee by Piano Novel
Eyes Closed and Traveling by Peter Broderick
Future Waves by Uther Moads
Go Home by h. hunt
Juneau from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurrians score to Wildlike
5/8/2021 • 18 minutes, 9 seconds
Episode 179: Keyhole
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music:
Individuation by Eluvium
Kola - Lighthouse Version by amiina
Seeming by Helios
Portrait Gallery by Luke Howard
Disillusionment for the Emotional Type by You’ll Never Get to Heaven
Clouds by Hiroshi Yoshimura
Notes:
Leviathan: the History of Whaling in America by Eric Jay Dolan was super useful and very readable.
You can find the study on Sperm Whale adaptation in the North Pacific here.
4/22/2021 • 14 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 178: Crossfade
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music:
Wiegenfield, S. 198 as played Khatia Buniastihivilli
Van McCoy sings Mr. DJ
Vier Stucke fur Xylophon
Love is Blue by Jackie Mittoo
Calvary by Quicksilver Messenger Service
Tizita by Tijist Ejigu
Violin Solo no. 1 by Peter Broderick
Two Aquerelles 1. Slow
The Hustle by Van McCoy
Coffee Beans by Moondog
Dogs of Straw from Larry Groupe's score to Straw Dogs
Flowering Jasmine by George Pelecis
Visit Croatia by Alabaster DePlume
Absence by Matti Bye
4/3/2021 • 21 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 77: Butterflies
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
This episode was originally released in 2015. Sometimes you’re working on an episode (and when I say “you’re” I mean, “I’m,”) working on an episode and you realize it’s just all wrong. That there’s a good episode in there but you need to take a few days and go at it again. Because you (and, again, “you”=”I”) think it, and you (this time I mean you, the listener) deserve better. And you put out a re-run. It’s a good one, though.
3/20/2021 • 21 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 177: A Brief Eulogy for Carla Wallenda
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
The Last Days of Summer by Maria Avnos.
Broad Channel (Solo Piano) by Bing & Ruth
Homesickness (v. 1) by the phenomenal Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou
Notes
Here she is with Steve Harvey.
3/12/2021 • 12 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 176: The Air and the Sea and the Land
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Unsayable by Brambles.
Kola - Lighthouse Version by amiina
A Nearer Sun by the Westerlies
Duet, a Steve Reich composition, performed by Daniel Hope.
Reading a Wave by Arp
April by Kanazu Tomoyuki
Latent Sonata by Brian McBride
Notes
The oral history mentioned in this episode is available through the Smithsonian Instittion’’s archives.
2/25/2021 • 19 minutes, 7 seconds
Episode 175: One Hundred Percent a Diner
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Metaphysical Waltz by Shirley Meyer Blankenship
...morphs into Jock O'Hazeldean by Cynthia Boener
There's Dominique Dumont's La bataille de neige
The Squimp from the Chico Hamilton Quintet
Fruit of Dreams by Les Baxter
Rags to Riches by Tony Bennett
Notes
Best place to go if you want to learn a lot about Todd Storz is The Birth of Top 40 Radio: The Storz' Stations Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s by Richard Fatherly and David MacFarland.
For a loving history of the whole era, you'd probably enjoy Ben Fong Torres' The Hits Just Keep on Coming: The History of Top 40 Radio
2/11/2021 • 11 minutes, 39 seconds
Episode 174: The Stone
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Sarah in Bath from Komeda's great score to The Fearless Vampire Killers
David Goes Hunting from Larry Groupe's great score to Straw Dogs
When It's Time to Go by Buddy Fo and His Group (great name for a backing band, btw)
Completely Gone from Ludwig Gorannson's score to Everything, Everything
Peri Banu vid sjon (Version) by DUNGEN
Debut by Christopher Ferreira
1/26/2021 • 15 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 105: Amok
This piece was originally released in February, 2017.
This piece has two selections from Saunder Jurriens and Danny Bensi’s score to Christine, Yes But and Back to Work.
Notes
This very good article in the Museum of Hoaxes gives a nice overview and links out to the original article.
Hampton Sides In the Kingdom of Ice has a nice telling of the story with a lot of background on the editor of the Herald.
1/11/2021 • 8 minutes, 13 seconds
Episode 173: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Waltz for Sky by Muriel Botsdorp
A Gathering to Lead me When You're Gone by Brian McBride
20 (Lichen) by Brendan Eder Ensemble
Electronium Movie Score by Raymond Scott
Someday We'll Linger in the Sun by Gaelynn Lea
32 (Harp) by Nearly Oratorio
Notes
By far the most fun and helpful thing I read for this episode was Michael O'Malley's, Keeping Watch: A History of American Time.
12/29/2020 • 13 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 172: The Existential Tourist
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Memory Waltz from Bernard Herrmann's score to The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Pink Champagne from Harry Warren's score to An Affair to Remember
Jonalah from the Chico Hamilton Quintet
Brouillard, version 2 from Delerue's Jules et Jim score
Living by Sebastian Plano
12/12/2020 • 13 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 171: Out to Sea and Back Again
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
Spiderwebs of Clouds by Oliia Belli
11/25/2020 • 8 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode of the Year 2020
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
This episode was originally released in April of 2020. We are deeply, deeply annoyed that this is still relevant and useful.
20 stories, each 20 seconds, to accompany you in the proper washing of hands.
Stay safe, be well, wash your hands.
11/13/2020 • 19 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode 170: Reed v.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
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.
Music
As Old Roads by Goldmund
Wake by Taylor Duepree and Marcus Fischer
Sedentary II by Kyle Bobby Dunn
Talk to the Church by Gaussian Curve
Notes
The best resources I found for Sally Story (it’s easy to find out more about Reed v. Reed) came from a couple of sources: 100 Americans Making Constitutional History, A Biographical History, edited by Melvin L. Urovsky. And Natalie Wexler’s article, “Sex Discrimination - a Search for a Standard.”
10/20/2020 • 11 minutes, 27 seconds
The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allan Poe
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
This episode contains a full reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Masque of the Red Death. Use your discretion before listening. It is both one of the more macabre stories from Poe and it is hitting harder than usual during these peculiar times.
10/4/2020 • 17 minutes, 26 seconds
From a Parking Lot, a special bonus episode for the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival
This episode of The Memory Palace was commissioned by the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival and the New York State Council of the Arts in 2019.
It’s ideally meant to be listened to at the corner of Corinthian and State downtown. But, you’ll likely enjoy it wherever you are.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX.
9/15/2020 • 12 minutes, 43 seconds
High Falls, a bonus episode for the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival
This episode of The Memory Palace was commissioned by the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival and the New York State Council of the Arts in 2019.
It’s ideally meant to be listened to at the Pont du Rennes while viewing High Falls. But, you’ll likely enjoy it wherever you are.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX.
9/15/2020 • 13 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 169: Beautician
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independent podcasts from PRX.
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.
Music
Them by Nils Frahm
Feathers by Poppy Ackroyd
Notes
You can read Myles Horton’s book.
I found The Birth of Citizen Schools: Entwining the Struggles for Literacy and Freedom by David P. Levine particularly useful.
And especially Clare Russell’s “A Beautician Without Teacher Training: Bernice Robinson, Citizen Schools and women in the Civil Rights Movement.”
9/7/2020 • 12 minutes, 6 seconds
Episode 168: The Traveling Stones
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independent podcasts from PRX.
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.
Music
Ruby by Ali Farka Toure
Party’s End, from Bernard Herrmann’s score to The Egyptian
Future Green by Masuhiro Sugaya
The Boy and the Snake Dance by Charles Cohen
Vier Stucke for Xylophone as performed by Guniid Keetman
Opening from Marcelo Zarvos’ score to Please Give
Herbert’s Story from Mark Orton’s score to Nebraska
Solitary Living by The Flashbulb
Notes
You should read Dan De Quille. He’s a good writer! I like his book on the Comstock Load, Big Bonanza.
Also check out The Tall Tales of Dan De Quille, by C. Grant Loomis from 1946.
I found this article about Twain’s time in Nevada particularly helpful.
8/25/2020 • 14 minutes, 12 seconds
The Wheel
In a terrible summer often filled with stories about monuments to terrible men, here is a story about an American hero. Build monuments to Robert Smalls.
Originally released on February 10th, 2016.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of the Radiotopia Network.
Music
* Julia Rovinsky plays Phillip Glass’ Metamorphosis I, from her album Dusk.
* There’s an excerpt from Paul Drescher’s “Casa Vecchia,” from the Mirrors: Other Fire album.
* There’s a chunk of Jose Gonzalez’ “Instrumental” from his Stay in the Shade EP.
* “Manny Returns Home” from Bernard Hermann’s score to The Wrong Man.
* Branka Parlic plays Philip Glass’ “Mad Rush.” Twice.
* “Quiet Fan for SK,” by P.G. Six.
* Things get heavy to “Particles of the Universe (Heartbeats)” from Dan Romer and Ben Zeitlin’s score to Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Notes
There’s a lot written about Robert Smalls, with a lot of contradictory information. I found Edward A. Miller’s Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress particularly useful to sorting it all out.
Some other sources I consulted while researching this piece:
* The Negro’s Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union by the Don, James McPherson
* From Slavery to Public Service: Robert Smalls, 1839-1915, by Okon Uya.
* And, for what it’s worth, Robert Smalls: The Boat Thief from RFK Jr.’s American Heroes Series is an enjoyable and surprisingly thorough version of the story for young readers, if you’re ever looking for that sort of thing.
8/7/2020 • 20 minutes, 19 seconds
Episode 167: A Brief Eulogy for a Minor League Baseball Team
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
Adrift by Yameneko
Lagrimas Negras by Antonio Maria Romeau
Rainfall by Michael Jones and David Darling
The Big Ocean by Ben Sollee
7/22/2020 • 12 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 166: The Silent Room
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
Peri Banu vid Sjon (VERSION) by Dungen
In a Landscape by John Cage
Quartet for Four Percussionists IV: Fast by John Cage
Dream by John Cage
Completely Gone by Ludwig Gorannson
The Introduction and Chi C’e Per Farmi i Rici from The Girl of the Golden West
L’approche Du Nuage by Sylvain Chaveu
Notes
The story of John Cage in the anechoic chamber was first told to me maybe twenty years ago by my friend Dave Panosky one night while walking around Providence. It was precisely the type of story that I wanted to one day make a show to tell. You can find it in a lot of places including in Cage’s own writing.
I first came across the second silent room in Alex Ross’ wonderful, The Rest is Noise.
I also tapped into Puccini and the Girl: History and Reception of Girl of the Golden West by Annie Randall and Rosalind Gray Davis.
7/4/2020 • 18 minutes, 51 seconds
A White Horse
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm
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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
6/12/2020 • 12 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 165: A Park
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
We hear Armellodie by Chilly Gonzales
And All Now Vibe by Tara Jane O'Neil
Notes
The Lavender Scare by David K. Johnson
Trouble in Lafayette Square by Gil Klein
6/5/2020 • 8 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 164: Dora Salter
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
Illusion Perdida by Juan Bautista Guido y Su Orquesta Tipico
Manny Returns Home and Fingerprints from Bernard Herrmann's score to The Wrong Man.
Niggun for Solo Bassoon Phillipe Hersant
Rearranging Furniture by Gabriel Yared
Viona's Lullaby by Peter Sandberg
Notes
The archives of the Kansas Historical Quarterly were very useful, particularly this article.
5/26/2020 • 16 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 163: Freds
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
We hear a couple from Alabaster DePlume’s To Cy & Lee album, Whisky Story Time and Not My Ask.
Bibio’s CAPEL BETHANIA.
The Sage, by the Chico Hamilton Quintet.
The Last Tears of a Deceased by Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou.
Too Small for Eyes by Mothers.
5/9/2020 • 16 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 162: A Strange Land
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
Ruth and Sylvie from Daniel Hart’s score to Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
The Walk from Bernard Hermann’s score to Tender is the Night
Reflector by Bing and Ruth
Requiem from Nico Mulhy’s score to How to Talk to Girls at Parties
Under Siege from Warren Ellis’ score to Mustang
Spaces in Time from Per Nargard and the Stavenger Symphony
Theme de l’eau from Hikaru Hayashi’s score to The Naked Island
Bus Ride from the score to Wildlike
Duke Ellington playing Single Petal from a Rose
Notes
There’s quite a bit written about Isaac Israel Hayes. You can find his own account of his trip to find the non-existant, open polar sea here.
I owe the Detroit newspaper quote to this excellent article by Albin Kowaleweski.
4/21/2020 • 16 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 161: Stories to Wash Hands By
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
20 stories, each 20 seconds, to accompany you in the proper washing of hands.
Stay safe, be well, wash your hands.
4/3/2020 • 17 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode 160: Wong Kim Ark
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
3/19/2020 • 8 minutes, 19 seconds
Episode 159: The Newest News
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Anyway...
Music
We hear The Icelandic Society of Phallogy from Rob Simonsen score to The Final Member.
And one of my favorite songs, Every Day a Sunrise, A Summer from The Telegraph Melts.
Notes
I read and enjoyed The Golden Age of the Newspaper by George Douglas.
I first learned about Moses Yale Beach and the pigeon reporters in an aside in one of the fantastic stories in Banvard's Folly by Paul Collins, a book you should purchase right now.
3/8/2020 • 11 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 158: Life's Work
Help support this show and the network that makes it possible by making a donation today. Make your mark at Radiotopia.fm/donate
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
Field of Reeds by Leo Svirsky.
Stellify by Federico Albanese.
Opening by Nathanial Bartlett.
Turning 16 by Ben Sollee.
Notes
I strongly recommend checking out Annelise Orlick's Common Sense and a Little Fire, an exhilarating history of Pauline Newman, Rose Schneiderman and other women at the center of the labor movement in the 20th Century.
2/24/2020 • 16 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 157: The House of Lowe
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Help support this show and the network that makes it possible by making a donation today. Make your mark at Radiotopia.fm/donate
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
Philharmonics (Piano Sessions), from Agnes Obel.
Pre-Barok by Mica Levi and Oliver Coates.
Space in Between by Federico Albanese.
Warm Canto by Mal Waldron.
Blink by Hiroshi Yoshimura.
Notes
There are two lovely books I relied on heavily for this story: Something to Prove: A Biography of Ann Lowe, Forgotten Designer by Julia Dockery Smith.
And Rosemary Read's The Threads of Time, Fabric of History.
2/11/2020 • 16 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 156: That's How it Goes Whenever it Snows
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Anyway...
**Music **
Artifices from Chapelier Fou.
A smidge of [Equality Under the Law](http://: https://geo.music.apple.com/us/album/equality-under-the-law/569934319?i=569934714&mt=1&app=music) from John Williams score to Lincoln.
I Can See Your Tracks (Instrumental) from Laura Veirs.
Bone Collector by Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge
Some of Increase by David Lang
[Serenade for Alto Saxophone and Strings: IV Stella’s Dance](http:// https://geo.music.apple.com/us/album/serenade-for-alto-saxophone-and-strings-v-evensong/462122423?i=462122731&mt=1&app=music) by David Liptak
Johnny Griffin’s version of [Woody’n You](http:// https://geo.music.apple.com/us/album/woodyn-you-instrumental/1443062797?i=1443063227&mt=1&app=music)
Last Days of Summer by Maria Avos
Notes
This story started by reading The War Lovers: Lodge, Hearst, Roosevelt and the Rush to Empire, Evan Thomas’ history of the Spanish American War.
Doris Kearns Goodwin adds more in The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.
Lodge’s memoir is here.
Robert Grant’s is here.
Henry Adams’ is here.
1/19/2020 • 10 minutes, 11 seconds
Episode 155: Lost Bulls
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Anyway...
This episode was originally produced for an episode of Radiolab from WNYC, released in August of 2019.
Music
Cul-de-Sac from Krzysztof Komeda’s Knife in the Water.
[The Mistral Noir](http:// https://geo.music.apple.com/us/album/the-mistral-noir/973468266?i=973468267&mt=1&app=music) by Daniel Herskedal.
[Trakors](http:// https://geo.music.apple.com/us/album/tr%C3%A4kors-f%C3%A4ltinspelad/1446106006?i=1446106011&mt=1&app=music) by 1900.
Eloy by Deaf Center.
[Leaping Dance](http:// https://geo.music.apple.com/us/album/leaping-dance/265055509?i=265055945&mt=1&app=music) from the Netherlands Wind Ensemble
And Facing the Obstacles from Rob Simonson’s score to the Final Member.
Notes
This episode relied heavily on the work and research of Professor Gabriel Rosenberg of Duke, using his article, “No Scrubs: Livestock Breeding, State Power, and Eugenic Knowledge in the Early 20th Century United States” as a guide and jumping off point for other research.
1/4/2020 • 12 minutes, 20 seconds
Nate's Favorite Episode of 2019
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
First up is Requiem from Nico Muhly’s score to How to Talk to Girls at Parties.
November by Colleen.
Edward Hong’s arrangement of Sleep from the Smoke and Mirrors Percussion Ensemble.
The solo version of Broad Channel by Bing & Ruth
Won’t Be a Thing to Become by Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld
Notes
Here’s Shane DuBay and Carl Fuldner’s study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, including Fuldner’s remarkable photographs.
12/26/2019 • 11 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 154: Dotting I's
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Help support this show and the network that makes it possible by making a donation today. Make your mark at Radiotopia.fm/donate
This episode was commissioned by the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
MUSIC
Amalgamation Waltz 1839 by Joep Beveng
Now by Goldmund
Wander On from Joel P West's score to Band of Robbers.
Tomato Day by Kelpe.
12/13/2019 • 12 minutes, 15 seconds
A Conversation About the Memory Palace with Robert Krulwich
It’s Radiotopia fundraiser time! Once a year, we reach out to ask our listeners to donate to the network that makes this show possible. Make your mark by making a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate today!
Here’s a very special episode of The Memory Palace in which Nate talks to CERTIFIED RADIO LEGEND, Robert Krulwich, of Radiolab and beyond, about the origins of the show and what makes The Memory Palace tick.
12/9/2019 • 39 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 153: Dinner at Jefferson's
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Help support this show and the network that makes it possible by making a donation today. Make your mark at Radiotopia.fm/donate
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
Waveland by Noam Pikelny.
Notes
I relied a lot on the extensive articles on the Monticello historic home's site maintained by the University of Virginia.
As well as Dining at Monticello: In Good Taste and Abundance by Damon Lee Fowler.
12/6/2019 • 7 minutes, 31 seconds
Episode 152: Let it Snow
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
Still Space by Satoshi Ashikawa.
11/15/2019 • 7 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 151: The Story of Maria Barberi
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Anyway...
Music
Inside River, Pt. 1 by Akira Kosuemura. .
Sonata for Solo Cello 1: Dialogo by Ligeti, performed by Miklos Perenyi.
All the Land Ablaze by Laura Cannell
Frost Trees from Lalo Schiffren's score to The Fox.
And Finding the Flag from Georges Delarue's score to The Day of the Dolphin.
11/1/2019 • 13 minutes, 26 seconds
Episode 150: Late One Night
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Anyway...
Music
We start with 666 from the score to The Omen.
Transition to Fremd by Lambert.
Go to Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett.
Hear some of Leonard Berstein's score to Rebel Without a Cause.
Hit Denmark by the Portland Cello Project
And hear some of Musette's On the Green Tape.
Notes
Bobby's story is covered in a lot of histories of one hit wonders and novelty tunes. But, if you want to really dig in, you should read, Monster Mash: Half Dead in Hollywood, his autobiography.
10/21/2019 • 17 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 149: Dance by the Ocean
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Anyway...
Music
We start with The Dane by Nihls Frahm.
Move in and out of Reading a Wave by Arp
Which mixes briefly with Stephen Gosling and Blair Macmillan playing John Adams' Hallelujah Junction.
We also here Umitaro Abe play Reperages Pour Piano.
And Brambles play Such Owls as You.
Notes
There's a pretty comprehensive book on Bayocean by Bert and Margie Webber called Bayocean: the Oregon Town That Fell Into the Sea
There's also a terrific website that appears to be regularly updating that's filled with all sorts of stories and resources about Bayocean.
10/4/2019 • 13 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 148: Safe Passage
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Anyway...
Music
We start with the Opening of Craig Armstrong's score to Far From the Madding Crowd.
Glass Houses no. 13 from Ann Southern.
Earring from Julia Wolf.
Occam II for Violin from Eliane Radigue.
Rearranging Furniture from Gabriel Yared's score to By the Sea.
A bit of Movement II from Martynov, "Come in!" by Vladimir Martynov.
Notes
Plenty written about the Willie D.. I found Roger Branfill-Cook's Torpedo: the Most Revolutionary Weapon in Naval History to be particularly useful.
I also enjoyed stumbling upon this day-by-day breakdown of F.D.R.'s Presidency.
9/19/2019 • 15 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 147: Shipwreck Kelly
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Anyway...
Music
We hear Vaggvisa by Henrik Lindstrand.
Then Kestrel, off the album by the same name from Caoimhin O Raghallaigh.
Ljuva mekaniska jag by 1900.
A loop from When it's Time to Go, by Buddy Fo & his Group.
A bit of Movement II from Martynov, "Come in!" by Vladimir Martynov.
Making Love in the Apartment from Krysztof Komeda's score to Rosemary's Baby.
And the Mistral Noir, from Daniel Herkedal.
Notes
There's a lot written about Kelly and his times, none more enjoyable than Bill Bryson's in One Summer: America, 1927.
The best academic book that touches on Kelly and his times is Dance Marathons: Performing American Culture in the 1920s and 30s, by Carol Martin.
9/5/2019 • 16 minutes, 31 seconds
A Welcome! And Dreamland!
Here in its tenth year in operation, the Memory Palace just got a star turn in the wonderful podcast and radios show, Radiolab. We couldn’t be more delighted.
So, a word of welcome to new listeners and a call to arms for regular listeners and a story perfect for the end of summer.
8/28/2019 • 10 minutes, 49 seconds
Episode 146: Two Memorials, Last Week of July, 2019
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Music
Absence by Matti Bye.
Notes
There are a number of excellent books about Viola Liuzzo. I found Selma and the Liuzzo Murder
8/8/2019 • 9 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 145: Stories about the St. Louis
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Music
On-ness by Tom Rogerson and Brian Eno.
My Mamma Pinned a Rose on Me by Esmerine.
Some of Eloy by Deaf Center.
Saturday Evening by Tomasz Benarczyk
Solitary Living by The Flashbulb
A Minor by Kid606
7/20/2019 • 13 minutes, 29 seconds
Episode 144: Nature Naturally
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Music
Duet for Ghosts by Ed Harcourt tops and tails this one.
We here the top of Pomeriggio Zenzero from Paulo Conte.
Some of Thankful by Bill Frissell.
And Ingo Metzmacher's 6th Study for Player Piano
Notes
The most comprehensive thing I read on George Melendez Wright is from this supplementary piece to the Burns National Parks documentary, by Susan Shumaker.
6/22/2019 • 8 minutes, 43 seconds
A White Horse
As on every year, here is an episode I released a few days after the murders at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida on June 12, 2016.
6/12/2019 • 11 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 143: The Only One
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Music
We hear both Baracolle and Ice World from Saloli's album, The Deep End.
We hear Ensemble Recherche do Morton Feldman's Something Wild in the City: Mary Ann's Theme.
As well as De Wolfe Music do Moonbird.
Harry Kalahiki does that Ukelele version of Claire de Lune
We get a snipped of Eartheater's Peripheral
And E Ruscha V's The Hostess
6/8/2019 • 10 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 142: Private Robinson on Pawnee Rock
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Music
We hear Concierto Para Piano Y Orquesta En Sol Mayor - Adagio Assi as played by Martha Argerich.
Notes
Jacob S. Robinson's Journal of the Santa Fe Expedition Under Colonel Doliphan in 1846.
Hampton Sides' fantastic Blood and Thunder.
5/20/2019 • 9 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 141: This Story Climbed Mount Washington
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Music
We start off with a touch of Hills in the Rain, by Simon Rackham.
Go to a bit of Narkopop 1 by Gas.
Then gaze in wonder to Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite: Sunrise, as performed by the Cincinatti Pops Orchestra
We listen to two versions of Trying Something Again, Again by our friends in Lullatone.
And go out on Jaybird, by Charlie Parr
5/3/2019 • 8 minutes, 9 seconds
Rebroadcast: Origin Stories
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
4/20/2019 • 17 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 140: Jackie Mitchell
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Music
We start off with Chez Thomas, by Charles Delarue
Go to The Graceful Ghost, one of William Bolcom's 3 Ghost Rags.
Then Krzysztof Komeda's Ballet Edude II
A touch of Ellington playing A Single Petal on a Rose.
Then Concerto no. 5 en la minuer: Allegro ma non molto, as performed by Wilhelm Friedeman Bach and Brigitte Haudbebourg frames...
Philharmonics - Piano Sessions found on the Deluxe Edition of Agnes Obel's Philharmonics album.
Then we go to Nathaniel Johnson's gorgeous, Penelope's Theme from the score to the delightful film, The Brothers Bloom.
Sneeuwland by Oskar Schuster.
Judith by Jacob David.
Notes
I read a bunch of articles on Jackie, but if you're looking for one-stop-shopping that can send you off in other research avenues, I'd probably suggest this article by Zack Harold in Lapham's Quarterly.
4/9/2019 • 16 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 139: 1,347 Birds
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
First up is Requiem from Nico Muhly's score to How to Talk to Girls at Parties.
November by Colleen.
Edward Hong's arrangement of Sleep from the Smoke and Mirrors Percussion Ensemble.
The solo version of Broad Channel by Bing & Ruth
Won't Be a Thing to Become by Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld
Notes
Here's Shane Dubay and Carl Fuldner's study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, including Fuldner's remarkable photographs.
3/23/2019 • 10 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 138: Sixty Starlings
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
Blink from Hiroshi Yoshimura
Which comes in and out of Bjolukor Tonlisterakoli Reykjanesbaejar's version of Sigur Ros' Hoppipolla.
Love Token by Elena Kats-Chernin, performed by Tamara Anna Cislowska
And Joanna Brouk playing Maggi's Flute - Lifting Off
Notes
There's
a ton out there about the sixty starlings, the most comprehensive comes
from Stephen Marche's book, How Shakespeare Changed Everything.
I also found Kim Todd's [Tinkering with Eden,](http://%22Tinkering%20With%20Eden:%20A%20Natural%20History%20of%20Exotic%20Species%20in%20America) particularly useful.
3/9/2019 • 9 minutes, 44 seconds
A Memory Palace/Radio Diaries Crossover Event
On the 80th Anniversary of the night 20,000 Americans attended a Nazi Rally in the heart of Manhattan, the Memory Palace is teaming up with Radio Diaries. We’ll hear their new story about that rally after we listen back to a Memory Palace episode that took place on that same evening, in which some Nazis get punched.
Learn more about this evening at www.radiodiaries.org.
For info on the original Memory Palace episode, head here.
2/20/2019 • 18 minutes, 8 seconds
Episode 137: Swans
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
Sarah in Bath from Krysztof Komeda's score to the Fearless Vampire Killers.
Adagio for Glass Harmonica, K617a as performed by Vienna Glass Armonia Duo.
Mr. Death Angel Flanders from John Barry's score to Boom!
And a bit of Imaginary Building from Elana Katz-Cherwin and Tamara-Anna Cislowska
Notes
There's a great American Heritage article on the history of Delmonico's.
There's a nice write up on the Swan Dinner in American Phoenix: The Remarkable Story of William Skinner, by Sarah S. Kilborne
Society as I Have Found It, Ward McAllister's memoir of the Gilded Age is appropriately bonkers.
2/7/2019 • 9 minutes, 26 seconds
Episode 136 (Ten Fingers, Ten Toes)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
Only in the Dark by Ben Lukas Boysen
Dream House III: After Dust by Mary Ellen Childs and Ethel
Cello Gonzalez by Chilly Gonzalez
Notes
A Brief History of Teratology to the Early 20th Century by Mark V. Barrow
Environment and Birth Defects by James G. Wilson
Six Principals of Teratology by James G. Wilson
1/17/2019 • 9 minutes, 26 seconds
Nate's Episode of the Year for 2018
Each year for the last three years, Nate picks his personal favorite. Here’s 2018. See you in 2019.
12/18/2018 • 20 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 135: Revolutions
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
We start off with an absolute banger from my old friends in Lightning Bolt, their track King Kandy.
Then an old favorite, Blues to Elvin from the unstoppable, Coltrane Plays the Blues.
We move to Everything is an Illusion by Kaada
Hear Rolling by Collectress
And finish out on The Dog by Group Listening.
Notes
I read quite a bit for this one but nothing was more helpful (or more charming) than Save Womens Lives History of Washing Machines by Lee Maxwell, who bills himself on the cover as "Collector of Old and Unusual Washing Machines." God bless Lee and his patient wife.
12/5/2018 • 11 minutes, 58 seconds
2018 Fundraiser Bonus Episode!
It’s time for the 2018 fundraiser. On this, the tenth anniversary of The Memory Palace, show your support for independent artists by making a donation at Radiotopia.fm.
11/27/2018 • 11 minutes, 56 seconds
Election Eve Rebroadcast (In Line)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more and donate to help keep this show and the other Radiotopia shows thrive at Radiotopia.fm
Notes
* There are a gajillion things that you can and should read about this period. I’m almost loathe to tell you where to begin. So: some of the details for this story were found in this remarkable article by Claude Sitton.
Music
* We hear a segment of Holding Pattern, by Loscii.
* Secrets you Could Sift, by Mr. Maps.
* And Requiem on Frankfort Ave, by Eluvium.
11/5/2018 • 9 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 134 (The Dress in the Closet)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
A note: this here is a Halloween episode. They get creepy.
Music
We hear both Easter and The Attachment by Michael Price.
Some of DNA by Akira Kosemura.
Piano & Violoncello 1 by Irena and Voltech Havel.
Zucht 2 by Machinefabriek
The Walk from the score to Tender is the Night.
Rendez-vous from Allesandro Cicognini's score to The Indiscretion of an American Wife.
10/27/2018 • 14 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 133: Antidisestablishmentarianism
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
We start with the very English, Voluntary No. 4 in b-flat Minor, by Margaret Phillips.
Hear Nero's Nocturne from Chilly Gonzales.
Some of The Stars vs. Creatures by Colleen.
Abide with Me from the Thelonious Monk Septet off his Monk's Music album.
Walzer fur Robert by Anne Muller off of Erased Tapes Volume 5.
Evening at Eight by Keith Kenniff.
and Berceuse by Alexandra Streliski.
10/13/2018 • 14 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 132 (Ida Lewis)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
We hear Waltz from the score to Angels & Insects.
Movements IV and II from David Liptak’s Serenade for Alto Sax and Strings.
A bit of Violin Solo no. 1 from Peter Broderick.
Some of Zucht 2 from Machienfabrik.
A bit of Origami Tulips from Lullatone.
Unseen Forces from Justin Walter.
Midnight Moon from Annalisa Tornfelt and Gideon Freudman
Ida Lupino from Paul Bley’s Changes album from 1965.
And Lost Fur (Reprise) from the score to Where the Wild Things Are.
Notes
Many of my favorite things I read for this piece were contemporary newspaper tributes upon her death in 1911. They’re easy to find.
By far the most useful thing I read was Lenore Skomal’s *The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter: The Remarkable True Story of American Heroine, Ida Lewis. *It’s very well researched and highly readable.
9/26/2018 • 17 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 131 (Lost Locusts)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
The music on this one comes from High Aura'd, a project from my old friend, John Kolodij. The main drone piece is All the Spirits that Dance. The beginning and end were composed specifically for this episode.
Notes
I read a lot of articles from a lot of sources on this one, but the linchpin here is Jeffrey Lockwood's book that, to my mind, convincingly solves the mystery of the vanishing locusts.
9/11/2018 • 11 minutes, 51 seconds
Episode 130 (Independence Hall 2: The Legend of Walter Knott)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
We start with Penguins from Michael Hurley.
Hit Lullaby (the 1st) by the legendary, Lauren Connors, twice.
Hear Gentle Threat, from Chilly Gonzalez.
Equality Under the Law from John Williams' Lincoln score.
Start talking Philadelphia with Sun Ra's Arkestra doing The Lady with the Golden Stockings.
Maggi's Flute - Lifting Off, by Joanna Brouk
In an 18th Century Drawing Room from Raymond Scott.
And Evelop from Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
8/22/2018 • 16 minutes, 11 seconds
Summer Re-run: Episode 68 (White Heat, White Light)
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth’s Modesty Blaise score. * The opening loop is from Mr. Knight from Coltrane Plays the Blues, which you should own. * The violin piece is Occam II for Violin, a piece by Silvia Tarozzi, played by Pauline Oliveros. * Next up is Mikuro’s Blues from the mighty David S. Ware’ mighty Go See the World. * The amazing orchestral pieces is Triumph by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Nino from Fill the Heart- Shaped Cup * Finally, there’s 13 Ghosts II by Nine Inch Nails from Ghosts I-IV
White Heat, White Lights
8/8/2018 • 9 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 129: Uplift
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
The Bundt Diaries from Ludwig Goransson's score to Everything, Everything.
Kola (Lighthouse Version) by Amiina.
Snow Canon by Group Listening.
The Morning After by the Chico Hamilton Quintet. (Man, I just watched The Sweet Smell of Success recently; the Chico Hamilton Quintet makes the best, sustained appearance in a great, great movie).
Colleen's Geometria del Universo.
Bug's Walk by Peter Storby Jutbring.
Touch Me & Die by Kara-Lis Coverdale
The Last Tears of a Deceased by the inimitable Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou.
7/26/2018 • 14 minutes, 43 seconds
Episode 128 (Patience)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
Drunken Aviator by Ida.
Back to Paris by Cyril Morin.
Notes
There's a great resource of old ads and articles, including the one referenced in the piece here.
The definitive work on this subject is Help Me to Find My People by Heather Andrea Williams.
7/4/2018 • 9 minutes, 31 seconds
A White Horse, re-released on the second anniversary of the shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.
This piece was originally released a few days after the shooting deaths of 49 people at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It is re-released here on the second anniversary of the event.
If you are so moved, please donate to any of these charities:
Equality Florida.
Human Rights Campaign.
Everytown for Gun Safety.
Trans Lifeline
6/12/2018 • 11 minutes, 14 seconds
No Summer (Episode 127)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
White Light by Chihei Hatekeyama
Between the Trees by Akira Kosemura
Clockwork Toccatta, Op. 68 from Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet.
End of Summer Part 3 by Hildur Gudnadottir and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe
A Gathering to Lead Me When You're Gone by Brian McBride
Notes
While the most comprehensive and useful thing I read for this piece was The Year Without a Summer: 1816 and the Volcano that Darkened the World and Changed history by William and Nicholas Klingaman, my favorite thing was this video of a news report on the work of Vermont historian, Howard Coffin.
6/4/2018 • 13 minutes, 14 seconds
Episode 126 (The 8th Story)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
We start with Waveland by Norm Pikelny.
Then a smidge of N.Y.C. from the original Broadway cast recording of Annie.
The Stars vs. Creatures by Colleen.
Wiese by Roedelius & Arnold Kasar.
Then there's some chaos built out of Missing Piece from the score to Broken City, Fog Tropes by Ingram Marshall, Spindrift by Colin Stetson, and Longing for a Frozen Sky by Ernst Reijseger.
That heads into Wake by Aaron Martin & Machinfabriek.
Galaxies Like Grains of Sand by Hampshire & Foat.
Finishing on Minuet for Cheap Piano by Winged Victory for the Sullen
5/17/2018 • 12 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 125: Snakes!
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
Music
We hear Ferris Wheel by Gabor Szabo from one of his better late sixties records.
Herman's Malt from Jeff Russo's score to Fargo Season 2.
David Goes Hunting from Larry Groupe's score to Straw Dogs.
Double Portrait by Double Edge from the album, U.S. Choice.
A snippet of Idea of Order at Kyson Point from an album Brian Eno did with Tom Rogerson.
Bicycles and Flasks by Dan Romer.
A bit of Il Tamoure dei Bambini from Piero Umiliani's score to Le Isole Dell'amore
A Naga Swaram-Snake Charmers Melody from Folk Music of India
Finishes out on Completely Gone from Ludwig Goransson's score to Everything Everything.
4/25/2018 • 15 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 124 (Junk Room)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX.
Music
We start off with Theme de Simon from Georges Delerue.
Go to Alpine Sketch from Christian Loffler's Young Alaska.
Hear some of Three Dances: II Pavane arranged for the Chromos Tuba Quartet.
The Plum Blossom from Yusuf Lateef's great Eastern Sounds record.
Juve & Fandor by amiina.
The Unquestioned Answer by Laura Spiegel.
Etude by Joep Beving.
Rainfall by David Darling and Michael Jones.
4/6/2018 • 15 minutes, 31 seconds
A quick update and a bonus episode
A quick update and a brief little bonus episode.
3/27/2018 • 9 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 123: Outliers
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
We hear Valentine My Funny by Nils Frahm and F.S. Blumm from the album Tag Eins Tag Zwei.
Notes
This idea came to me a long time ago while researching an old episode. I read an extraordinary article from the 1890s that hung with me, particularly the notion of folks writing in to try to become sideshow attractions.
3/12/2018 • 9 minutes, 21 seconds
Big Block of Cheese - Bonus episode
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
This special episode was originally made for a live episode of The West Wing Weekly. To hear a live version of this story (and the rest of a particularly delightful TWWW episode), visit thewestwingweekly.com.
Music
Moonbow by aAirial
Two from scores by Marcelo Zavros: Wipe the Slate Clean, from The Beaver and Awkward Ride from his score to Please Give.
Justine and Sami from Nathan Johnson's lovely score to The Day I Saw Your Heart.
2/23/2018 • 10 minutes, 47 seconds
Episode 122 (Hercules)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
We start with Facing the Obstacles, from Robert Simonson's score to The Final Member.
Nice Breeze Isn't It? by Simon Rackham
The Things Left Unsaid, by Caleb Burhans.
View from a Balcony by Isorinne.
1979 by Deru.
The Julianna Barwick remix of This Will Destroy You's The Puritan.
Notes
I found this article by Chelsea Lenhart particularly useful.
As I did this one by Edward Lawler, Jr.
And this one by Kathryn Gehred.
As well as W.E.B. DuBois' The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study.
Fritz Herschfield's George Washington and Slavery, A Documentary Study.
2/12/2018 • 13 minutes, 11 seconds
Episode 121 (The Nickel Candy Bar)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
We hit two sections from Bernard Herrmann's score to Tender is the Night: The Embrace and The Breakdown.
A bit of Sambolero by Luiz Bonfa.
Labyrinth II by Caitlin Aurelia Smith.
Walter Meets the Beaver from Marcel Zavros' score to The Beaver.
Two tracks, "1" & "2" from AAESPO's album, Layers.
Maria Arvos' Last Days of Summer.
And Time Times Three by Palm.
Notes
The most comprehensive article I encountered on Doug Davis is here.
I found this biographical essay on Otto Schnering particularly useful.
The Oxford Companion to American Food & Drink, edited by Andrew F. Smith.
1/28/2018 • 13 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 120 (The Prairie Chicken in Wisconsin: Highlights of a Study of Counts, Behavior, Turnover, Movement, and Habitat)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
We move between three different pieces from Camille Saint-Saens': Suite, Op. 90: II Menuet, and two from Carnival of the Animals: Aviary and the Cuckoo in the Heart of the Woods.
We hit Juneau from Danny Bensi and Sander Jurriaans' score to Wildlike.
And The Waltz from their score to 5 to 7.
And there's a total gem from George Mukabi called Dila Ni Dila in there too.
Notes
Do yourself a favor and read France Hamerstrom's autobiography, My Double Life: Memoirs of a Naturalist.
Do your kids a favor and Jeannine Atkins take on Frances in her book Girls Who Looked Under Rocks.
And then watch Frances teach David Letterman how to cook a snake.
1/13/2018 • 14 minutes, 1 second
Nate's Episode of the Year: If You Have to be a Floor
Show Notes
Nate DiMeo is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Artist in Residence for 2016/2017. He is producing ten pieces inspired by the collection and by the museum itself. This is the sixth episode of that residency.
This residency is made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Chester Dale Fund.
This episode is written and produced and stuff by Nate DiMeo with engineering assistance from Elizabeth Aubert. Its Executive Producer is Limor Tomer, General Manager Live Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Special thanks to Jimmy LaValle and Mark Kozelek.
The Art Discussed
Gallery 719, the Alexandria Ballroom.
Music
The piece features excerpts of two, instrumental outtakes from Ceiling Gazing from Mark Kozelek and Jimmy LaValle's album, Perils from the Sea.
California Dawn and Mountain Path from WMD.
An instrumental version of Retune by The Range.
12/26/2017 • 14 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 119 (John C. Calhoun from the Opposite Side of the Line that Divides the Living from the Dead)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
Sad Seine by Lambert.
Titan's Island by Ancient Ocean
Flowering Jasmine as performed by Georgs Pelicis and Gidon Kremer
Malpensa by Julia Kent
Notes
I first came upon the Calhoun bit while re-reading Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism by Barbara Weisberg.
Which us, among other places to J.H. Fowler's New Testament "miracles" and Modern "miracles"
And to the delightfully named, The Ordeal of Life: Graphically Illustrated in the Experiences of Fifteen Hundred Individuals Promiscuously Drawn from All Nations, Religions, Classes, & Conditions of Men Alphabetically Arranged and Given Psychometrically, Through the Mediumship of John C. Grinnell, In the Presence of the Compiler, Thomas R. Hazard.
12/16/2017 • 9 minutes, 54 seconds
Episode 118 (On the Shores of Assawompset)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
Musica Seqenza play Schreza Infida
Frederico Durand plas Lluvia de Estrellas
The Martin Hayes Quintet plays The Boy in the Gap
East Forest by Provenance
There's a bit of Madame Ovary from Bensi and Jurriaans and Christine
It finishes on Three Dances: II. Pavane from Chromo Tuba Quartet
Notes
Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday by James W. Baker and Peter J. Gomes sent me first down a Charlotte Mitchell rabbit hole.
History of Plymouth, Norfolk, and Barnstable Counties, Massachusetts by Elroy S. Thompson
History of the Town of Lakeville, 1852-1952 by Gladys De Maranville (which you probably own all ready but, here it is anyway).
Indian History, Genealogy, Pertaining to the Good Sachem, Massasoit and his Descendants by Ebenezer Weaver Pierce.
The great, The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity, by Jill Lepore.
Massasoit of the Wamponoags: With Commentary on the Indian Character, by Alvin Gardner Weeks
"Baby Pilgrims, Sturdy Forefathers, and One Hundred Percent Americanism: the Mayflower Tercentenary of 1920," by Christine Arnold-Lourie in the Massachusetts Historical Review.
"The Daughter of a King," by Mike Maddigan in Southcoast Today.
"The Last of the Wamponoags," by Charles T. Scott in New England Magazine, vol. 33.
I also looked at a number of news paper articles, most found at Newspapers.com through the expected search terms.
11/20/2017 • 13 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 117 (Elizabeth)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
Up Niek Mountain by Peter Broderick
El cascabel de plata by Federico Durand
We hear just a little bit of imgs/ r by Kara-Lis Coverdale
Dissolving Clouds by Biosphere
Nebula by Julianna Barwick
Only in the Dark by Ben Lukas Boysen
Notes
Bittersweet: Diabetes, Insulin, & the Transformation of Illness by Chris Feudtner
Breakthrough: Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of A Medical Miracle by Thea Cooper and Arthur Ainsberg
I'd also recommend searching the New York Times archive for Elizabeth Hughes and Diabetes. It's remarkable to go back and watch the story unfold.
11/7/2017 • 12 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 116 (Hoover)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
Afkald by Bremer/McCoy
Peace by Oliver Coates.
Day One Four by F.S. Blumm and Nils Frahm
Displacement by Rafael Anton Irisarri
Notes
Some sources for this one were The Glory and the Dream by William Manchester.
Herbert Hoover: A Life by Glen Jeansonne
Herbert Hoover in the White House: The Ordeal of The Presidency, by Charles Rappleye
The Life of Herbert Hoover, Humanitarian, by George H. Nash
10/23/2017 • 11 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 115 (A Brief Eulogy for a Commercial Radio Station)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
Sunrise Through the Dusty Nebula by Hannah Peel
Keep by Nils Frahm
Horizon Variations by Max Richter
She cycles through: Where or When by Hal Kemp & His Orchestra, Smarty (You Know it All) by Fats Waller, Dear Mr. Gable: You Made Me Love You by Judy Garland, Hellhounds on My Trail by Robert Johnson, and The Big Apple by Tommy Dorsey and his Clambake Seven.
Future Waves by Uther Moads.
And Vapour Trail by Ride, forever.
10/4/2017 • 11 minutes, 59 seconds
Sometimes the Rain Just Doesn't Stop
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Music
Memory as Mist by C. Diab
Low Sudden by Daniel Lanois and Rocco DaLuca
Beyond Romance by Lubomyr Melnyk
Notes
By far the most comprehensive resource I found was Florida's Hurricane History by Jay Barnes. If you're looking to learn more, I'd definitely start there.
9/15/2017 • 10 minutes, 29 seconds
Two Small Sculptures (The Met Residency Episode 8)
Show Notes
Nate DiMeo was the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Artist in Residence for 2016/2017. He produced 8 episodes inspired by the collection and by the museum itself. This is the eigth episode of that residency.
This residency is made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Chester Dale Fund.
This episode is written and produced and stuff by Nate DiMeo with engineering assistance from Elizabeth Aubert. Its Executive Producer is Limor Tomer, General Manager Live Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Artwork Discussed
Hiawatha, Edmonia Lewis, 1868.
Minnehaha, Edmonia Lewis, 1868.
Music
L'oree Du Bois, by Sylvain Chauvau.
9/5/2017 • 11 minutes, 51 seconds
Orbes Cintilantes - A special summer episode
In lieu of your standard end-of-summer re-run, here is a very special re-run. No! Wait! I mean it. It's pretty cool. Here's the thing: Todavia, a new literary publisher in Brazil has just put out a book of Memory Palace stories translated into Brazilian Portuguese. (Purchasable world-wide through this site, if you happen to be interested),
This very special re-run has all sorts of Brazil-related bonus content, including a full episode of Helen Zaltzman's, The Allusionist. Subscribe to that fine podcast, here.
8/21/2017 • 32 minutes, 39 seconds
"Relics": A Special Bonus Episode
This special, bonus episode was commissioned by Freepoint Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's intended to be listened to while walking around Fresh Pond, across the street from the hotel, though it can be enjoyed anywhere.
8/9/2017 • 14 minutes, 6 seconds
A Scavenger Hunt (The Met Residency Episode 7)
Show Notes
Nate DiMeo was the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Artist in Residence for 2016/2017. He produced eight pieces inspired by the collection and by the museum itself. This is the eighth episode of that residency.
This residency is made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Chester Dale Fund.
This episode is written and produced and stuff by Nate DiMeo with engineering assistance from Elizabeth Aubert. Its Executive Producer is Limor Tomer, General Manager Live Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This episode was produced in collaboration with composer, Mary Lattimore.
Artwork Discussed
The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art.
Music
The music in this piece was composed and performed by Mary Lattimore.
8/7/2017 • 15 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 113 (Elmer McCurdy Rides Again and Again)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Music
We start with Moonlight by Masayoshi Fujita.
We hear a couple from Warren Ellis: Piece 3 and Lala's Theme.
We hear Paranoid and Credits 2 from the score to Christine.
And Junkman's Song by Stark Reality.
Notes
There's a succinct, well-written telling of the ins and outs of Elmer's life and after-life in Christine Quigley's Modern Mummies: The Preservation of the Human Body in the 20th Century.
I also enjoyed The Career of Elmer McGurdy, Deceased, by Basgall and Arthur.
7/19/2017 • 12 minutes, 32 seconds
Episode 112 (The Taking of Tom Sawyer's Island)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
Max Och's Ain't Nobody High Raga.
Frog's Eyes by Evan Ziporyn
Cooped up at Home with a Fever and a Tape Loop, by Lullatone
Medieval Waters, from Carter Burwell's score to In Bruges.
Frost Trees, from Lalo Schifrin's score to The Fox
Notes
By far my favorite and the most thorough examination of the Pow Wow I came across was actually Disney Historian Todd James Pierce's three (!) part series about the incident on his podcast Disney History Institute.
7/3/2017 • 17 minutes, 7 seconds
A White Horse, re-released on the second anniversary of the shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.
This piece was originally released a few days after the shooting deaths of 49 people at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It is re-released here on the second anniversary of the event.
If you are so moved, please donate to any of these charities:
Equality Florida.
Human Rights Campaign.
Everytown for Gun Safety.
Trans Lifeline
6/12/2017 • 11 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 111 (Cipher, or Greenhow Girls)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. This episode was produced as part out or "Doing Time" series, where each show across the network tackles the same theme. Go listen to the other contributions at Radiotopia.fm.
Notes
The most comprehensive book about Rose has to be Ann Blackman's Wild Rose: The True Story of a Confederate Spy.
I also found an old book, Rebel Rose: Life of Rose O'Neale Greenhow, Confederate Spy, by Ishbel Ross particularly useful (if pretty rah-rah Confederacy, which gets kind of intense).
Rose's memoir is very readable, too.
Music
Marnie, from Bernard Hermann's score
Don't Worry, by Zoe Keating
Debut, by Christopher Ferreira
El cascabel de plata, by Federico Durand
Technology, by Gareth Dickson
Longest Road, by Gaussian Curve
Troubles, by Sylvain Chauvau
Compesicion en Rojo, by Bernardo Bonezzi
6/10/2017 • 23 minutes, 45 seconds
If You Have to be a Floor (The Met Residency Episode 6)
Nate DiMeo is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Artist in Residence for 2016/2017. He is producing ten pieces inspired by the collection and by the museum itself. This is the sixth episode of that residency.
This residency is made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Chester Dale Fund.
This episode is written and produced and stuff by Nate DiMeo with engineering assistance from Elizabeth Aubert. Its Executive Producer is Limor Tomer, General Manager Live Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Special thanks to Jimmy LaValle and Mark Kozelek.
The Art Discussed
Gallery 719, the Alexandria Ballroom.
Music
The piece features excerpts of two, instrumental outtakes from Ceiling Gazing from Mark Kozelek and Jimmy LaValle's album, Perils from the Sea.
California Dawn and Mountain Path from WMD.
An instrumental version of Retune by The Range.
6/9/2017 • 12 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 110 (Lost Camels)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
We hear a bunch of Ryland, by Julian Lage off his World's Fair LP.
We hear the Flamingos do Where or When.
We hear Chilly Gonzalez' Salon Salloon
And finish out on Small Memory by Jon Hopkins
Notes
There's a bunch out there about the Camel Corps. You'll have fun Googling around. But some of the best details in here, including the remarkable thing about the Red Ghost, comes from this article from a 1961 issue of American Heritage.
5/27/2017 • 12 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 109 (The Year Hank Greenberg Hit 58 Home Runs)
Music, Footnotes & Ephemera
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
We start out with some of Pound for Pound from The Bad Plus
Go to Waltz by Mother Falcon
Into the Light by Marisa Anderson
With Everything that Breathes by Greg Haines
Day One Four by F.S. Blum and Nils Frahm
Andrew Cyrille, Jimmy Lyons, and Jeanne Lee do Nuba
And then Davis S. Ware does Mikuro’s Blues, which I’ve loved for a long time.
5/11/2017 • 12 minutes, 35 seconds
Notes on a Plaque, Still Imagined
This episode was originally released in August of 2015. It was re-released upon hearing that the city of New Orleans has begun the process of removing four monuments to the confederacy and post-civil war era, starting with an obelisk erected in 1891 honoring members of the Crescent City White League who suppressed the African American vote through violence and intimidation and who launched a failed military overthrow of the city’s elected government and integrated police force in 1874.
Music * First up (and returning at the end) is Sandra's Theme, from Heather McIntosh's fantastic score to Compliance, a very good, very disturbing movie. * We hit Frank Glazer leading Charles Ives' Largo for Clarinet, Violin and Piano a couple of times, framing... * Runaway from Olafur Arnalds.
Notes: *The key to researching this episode turned out to be an article in The Journal of Southern History from 2001 by Court Carnay called, "The Contested Image of Nathan Bedford Forrest.". * Also particularly useful was Nathan Bedford Forrest: a Biography, by Jack Hurst. * As was Lynching in America: A History in Documents, compiled by Christopher Waldrep. * Much of my information about the contents of the ceremony and speeches was gathered from this, the digitized journal and scrapbook of Charles Henry Niehaus, the sculptor of the monument. It's an extraordinary resource. * And let us all read Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases, by Ida B. Wells. And let's put her on the $10 while we're at it.
4/26/2017 • 15 minutes, 45 seconds
Episode 108, Met Residency #5: Temple
Nate DiMeo is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Artist in Residence for 2016/2017. He is producing ten pieces inspired by the collection and by the museum itself. This is the fifth episode of that residency.
This residency is made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Chester Dale Fund.
This episode is written and produced and stuff by Nate DiMeo with engineering assistance from Elyssa Dudley and research Assistance from Andrea Milne. Its Executive Producer is Limor Tomer, General Manager Live Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Art Discussed * The Temple of Dendur.
Music * As Much as Possible by Bing & Ruth. * Parcel by Melanie Velarde. * Field Hymn by Syrinx. * Wawa by the Ocean by Mary Lattimore. * Turning 16 and Trading Flags by Ben Sollee.
4/18/2017 • 19 minutes, 45 seconds
Episode 107 (Roots and Branches and Wind-Borne Seeds)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
We open with Mary Lattimore's Jimmy V. I love Mary Lattimore.
We hit Hatian guitarist Frantz Casseus' Lullaby from 1954 a few times.
We hear Drifting, by Matthew Robert Cooper.
And A Fool Persists by Infinite Body.
The two piano things are Open Window - For Piano by Yuichiro Fujimoto, and Pale by Akira Kosemura.
We also hear Gareth Dickson's Friday Night Fever for a bit.
Notes
I learned about Ynes while flipping idly through the 1974 edition of Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary (volume II, G-O, incidentally), "prepared under the Auspices of Radcliffe College," as it says on the frontispiece.
By far the most comprehensive thing I read was biography for young readers called Ynes Mexia: Botanist and Adventurer by Durlynn Anema.
4/1/2017 • 14 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 106 (A Washington Monument)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
We hear three pieces of Matthew Robert Cooper's score to Some Days Are Better Than Others: Expectation, Drifting, and Katrina Outtake.
Notes
If you want the story of the construction of the actual Washington Monument, you could check out John Steele Gordon's book.
3/17/2017 • 11 minutes, 28 seconds
Episode 105: Amok
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
This piece has two selections from Saunder Jurriens and Danny Bensi's score to Christine, Yes But and Back to Work.
Notes
This very good article in the Museum of Hoaxes gives a nice overview and links out to the original article.
Hampton Sides In the Kingdom of Ice has a nice telling of the story with a lot of background on the editor of the Herald.
2/27/2017 • 9 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 104, Met Residency #4 (A Portrait)
Nate DiMeo is the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Artist in Residence for 2016/2017. He is producing ten pieces inspired by the collection and by the museum itself. This is the second episode of that residency.
This residency is made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Chester Dale Fund.
This episode is written and produced and stuff by Nate DiMeo with engineering assistance from Elyssa Dudley and research Assistance from Andrea Milne. Its Executive Producer is Limor Tomer, General Manager Live Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Special thanks to Amelia Peck at The Met.
The Art Discussed * Prince Demah Barnes’ Portrait of William Duguid. * Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800
Music * Kyu and Njuichi from Sylvain Chauvau’s score to Umarete Wa Mita Keredo. * Moonbow by aAirial. * Gisella by K. Leimer from A Period of Review. * Here’s What You’re Missin and And Then it Rained from Bing & Ruth’s album City Lake.
2/15/2017 • 12 minutes, 47 seconds
Episode 103 (The Rose of Long Island)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
We start and end with Daniel Berenboim playing Lizt's 6 Consolations, S. 172: No. 3 in D flat minor.
We hit up Yes But, from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriens' score to Christine.
We return to the official Memory Palace love theme of William Henry Harrison, The Gentle Softness, Lalo Schiffrin's score to The Last Dragon
We cruise on the U.S.S. Princeton to Dispute by Yann Tiersen.
Twist comes to Missing Pieces from the Broken City score.
Notes
I read quite a bit about the Tylers, but really, one needs only to read "and Tyler Too," by Robert Seager II.
2/4/2017 • 17 minutes, 38 seconds
Episode 102 (The Presidency of William Henry Harrison, or Back in the Saddle)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
We start with (and later return to) And Grace by David Darling.
Robert Farnon and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. Suite II: The Wind which turns into Niggun for Solo Bassoon by Philippe Hersant.
Then we hit Neon Lights by Kraftwerk from The Man Machine.
And The Gentle Softness, the love theme to Enter The Dragon from Lalo Schifrin’s score.
And hit up our friends Lullatone at the end with Origami Tulips.
1/20/2017 • 9 minutes, 32 seconds
Nate's Episode of the Year: Local Channels
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm
SPOILERS BELOW
Notes * Much of what I read about Florence was pulled from old newspaper articles. * The biography in Notable American Women: Volume 5 does a nice, thorough job with Florence story. * I first stumbled on Florence Chadwick in a photo in a restaurant in Santa Barbara and was struck by, as the photo suggested, she went on a world tour, swimming local channels.
Music * First up is Solitude, from (delightfully named) Janis Crunch. * Then we’ve got Like a Bell to a Southerly Wind, by Chequerboard. * Modular Body #7 by Machinefabriek. * After Catalunya by Ephemetry and Richard J. Birkin. * Finishing up on The Old Favourite by The Gloaming.
12/30/2016 • 18 minutes, 21 seconds
Episode 101 (Promise)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
SPOILERS BELOW
Notes
I first heard about Hazel Scott while reading Rad American Women from A to Z to my daughter. It's a wonderful book. You should buy it for any kid in your life.
I read a lot about Hazel, but Karen Chilton's biography, Hazel Scott: A Pioneering Jazz Pianist from Cafe Society to HUAC was essential.
Music
Starts with Christope Beck and DeadMono's theme to Charlie Countryman.
Prelude for HS by Hakon Stene.
Tezeta (Nostalgia) from Malatu Astatke, from Ethiopiques vol. 4, one of my favorite pieces of music in the world.
Marian Lapansky plays Camille Saint-Saens "Le Sygne."
Which fights with Piero Umiliani's Danza Primitiva.
Warren Ellis rounds it out with his Lale's Theme from his terrific score to Mustang (which you should totally see).
The Hazel Scott pieces can be found here and here.
12/19/2016 • 15 minutes, 28 seconds
Episode 100 (Peregrinar)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Notes
I relied most heavily on The Crusades of Cesar Chavez by Miriam Pawell.
Enjoyed Jaques Levy's oral history, Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa
I read a lot of the local accounts on Newspapers.com and was informed particularly by the coverage in the Fresno Bee.
Music
Starts with Affinity by Gavin Luke.
Moves into Little Dume by Christian Naujoks.
Finish of with Call from Julianna Barwick.
12/1/2016 • 11 minutes, 43 seconds
Episode 99, Met Residency #3 (Full Circle)
Nate DiMeo is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Artist in Residence for 2016/2017. He is producing ten pieces inspired by the collection and by the museum itself. This is the second episode of that residency.
This residency is made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Chester Dale Fund.
This episode is written and produced and stuff by Nate DiMeo with engineering assistance from Kathy Tu and research Assistance from Andrea Milne. Its Executive Producer is Limor Tomer, General Manager Live Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Art Discussed * John Vanderlyn's Panoramic View of the Gardens of Versailles.
Music * Falling Asleep with a Book on Your Chest and Brass Practice by Lullatone. * Moonbow by aAirial. * Pauvre Simon, L'approach Du Nuage, and The Tunnel from Sylvain Chauvau's album Nuage. * So Long to Scream from Joshua Moshier's score to Good Enough.
11/21/2016 • 15 minutes, 48 seconds
An odd, pre-election bonus episode: a full reading of Song of Myself
As counter-programming to the clamor and nonsense of these last days before the American Presidential election, here is Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" in its entirety. Really.
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE
New episode next week.
11/7/2016 • 1 hour, 38 minutes, 26 seconds
Episode 98 (Under Our Feet)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Notes * This episode came by special request from my daughter, who heard about Waterhouse Hawkins in her second grade classroom. She came home and said, “Dad, I think I’ve got a good Memory Palace story for you.” * She and I found a great kids book called The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, by Barbara Kerley. * Grownup readers might want to check out All in the Bones by Valerie Bramwell and Robert Peek.
Music * We start off and finish with Kola, Lighthouse Version by amiina. * We hear their Leather and Lace as well. * There’s Mountain Path, by WMD. * We hear Prelude for Piano and Malaria by Worrytrain. * We also hear Manny Returns Home from Bernard Hermann’s score to The Wrong Man. * And Krolock on Sledge from the fantastic score to The Fearless Vampire Killers.
10/28/2016 • 13 minutes, 54 seconds
Episode 97 (In Line)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more and donate to help keep this show and the other Radiotopia shows thrive at Radiotopia.fm
Notes * There are a gajillion things that you can and should read about this period. I'm almost loathe to tell you where to begin. So: some of the details for this story were found in this remarkable article by Claude Sitton.
Music * We hear a segment of Holding Pattern, by Loscii. * Secrets you Could Sift, by Mr. Maps. * And Requiem on Frankfort Ave, by Eluvium.
10/14/2016 • 9 minutes, 58 seconds
The Met Residency Episode M2: One Bottle, Any Bottle
Nate DiMeo is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Artist in Residence for 2016/2017. He is producing ten pieces inspired by the collection and by the museum itself. This is the second episode of that residency.
This residency is made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Chester Dale Fund.
This episode is written and produced and stuff by Nate DiMeo with engineering assistance from Kathy Tu. Its Executive Producer is Limor Tomer, General Manager of Concerts & Lectures, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
* Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), John Singer Sargent, 1883-1884 * Tomb Effigy of Elizabeth Boott Duveneck, Frank Duveneck, 1891 * One bottle, any bottle.
Music * We hear "Pools of Grey," by Jeff Eden Fair and Starr Parodi. * Then "Ruth & Sylvie," by Daniel Hart. * And "Lost in Space," by Max Richter. * Wien, by Labradford plays beneath the credits.
Special thanks to Gabe Hilfer at Full Pursuit Media. and to Thayer Tolles, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, and Ariana Baurley at the Met for their help episode.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.
10/6/2016 • 8 minutes, 57 seconds
The Met Residency Episode 1: Recent Acqusition
Nate DiMeo is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Artist in Residence for 2016/2017. He is producing ten pieces inspired by the collection and by the museum itself. This is the first episode of that residency.
This residency is made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Chester Dale Fund.
This episode is written and produced and stuff by Nate DiMeo with engineering assistance from Kathy Tu and research assistance from Andrea Milne. Its Executive Producer is Limor Tomer, General Manager of Concerts & Lectures, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Art Discussed If you can't be at the museum to listen to this episode, you might want to take a look at: * Dance in a Subterranean Longhouse at Clearlake, California, Jules Tavernier, 1878. * The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, Albert Bierstadt, 1868 * Washington Crossing the Delaware Emmanuel Leutze, 1851
Music * We hear, "Prelude for a Single Snowflake Under Streetlight, Falling Like a Star," "The View from a Foggy Window, or Your Head in the Clouds with a Fever," and "Origami Guitar," from Lullatone. * We hear, "Entering Darwin," "On the Atlantic Ocean," "Popcorn and Life," "Shut up World," and "Turning Sixteen" from Ben Sollee. * Wien, by Labradford plays beneath the credits.
Special thanks to Gabe Hilfer of Full Pursuit Media. and to Dr. Elizabeth Kornhauser and Ariana Baurley at the Met.
Further Reading * Chronicling the West for Harper's: Coast to Coast with Frezeny & Tavernier by Claudine Chalmers. * Jules Tavernier Artist and Adventurer from Scott A. Shields, Alfred C. Harrison, Jr. and Claudine Chalmers.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.
10/6/2016 • 14 minutes, 38 seconds
Episode 96 (Canali)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.
Notes * I’ve read a bunch about the canals over the years, but the most fun I’ve had was going through the New York Times’ archive and just searching for Canals and Mars and reading article by article through the years, watching the debates, seeing conjecture reported as news, and then watching it all unravel. * For more on Lowell, I recommend Percival Lowell: the Culture and Science of Boston Brahmin, by David Strauss.
Music * This one features two appearances by X-Ray, by Youth Lagoon. * One from September, by Giles Lamb. * And a long one by Red Dawn, by Enzo.
9/30/2016 • 13 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 95 (Haunting)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.
Notes * Like anyone else, I became fascinated by Washington Phillip’s story through the music. So, go buy the music. * I backed into the research on this one when I should’ve just started at the source: Michael Corcoran’s amazing excavation of Phillips’ real story, as originally printed in Texas Monthly. There’s a lot of stuff that links out from his site.
Music * Lots of Washington Phillips. * Starts with As Old Roads, by Goldmund. * Don’t Worry, by (Memory Palace favorite) Zoe Keating. * 1979 by Deru.
9/17/2016 • 13 minutes, 21 seconds
Episode 94 (Numbers)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.
Note * Here’s a link to watch an excerpt of the CBS news break. * One of my favorite things I came across while reading up on the lottery was this site, which includes a remarkable page where folks send in their personal stories of their draft experience.
Music * Elevator Song by Keaton Henson (feat. Ren Ford) * Waves by Abby Gundersen
8/27/2016 • 12 minutes, 6 seconds
From the Vault: Dreamland
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.
MusicMusic in this one is track 6 in Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I then a track called “Ashley” from Yo La Tengo’s soundtrack to Junebug.
8/8/2016 • 9 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 93 (Local Channels)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm
SPOILERS BELOW
Notes * Much of what I read about Florence was pulled from old newspaper articles. * The biography in Notable American Women: Volume 5 does a nice, thorough job with Florence story. * I first stumbled on Florence Chadwick in a photo in a restaurant in Santa Barbara and was struck by, as the photo suggested, she went on a world tour, swimming local channels.
Music * First up is Solitude, from (delightfully named) Janis Crunch. * Then we’ve got Like a Bell to a Southerly Wind, by Chequerboard. * Modular Body #7 by Machinefabriek. * After Catalunya by Ephemetry and Richard J. Birkin. * Finishing up on The Old Favourite by The Gloaming.
7/30/2016 • 16 minutes, 21 seconds
Episode 92 (Oil, Water)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm
SPOILERS BELOW
Notes *Great stuff in the Cleveland Plain Dealer from waaaaaay back to fire #1, if you want to dive in. * Found Jonathan Joseph Wlasiuk’s dissertation, Refining Nature (etc.) quite helpful in sorting out the early days of the Rockefeller refineries. * If you want to know more about the complicated relationship of Cleveland and the ’69 fire and the passage of the Clean Water Act, seek out Jonathan H. Adler’s article (and R.E.M. nod), Fables of the Cuyahoga: Reconstructing a History of Environmental Protection. * I also want to shout out The Killer in the Attic, and More True Tales of Crime and Disaster from Cleveland’s Past, by John Stark Bellamy II, which does a great job with the river fires.
Music * Start off with Lacrymae, from Melodium. * Go to a chopped up Fables, by Girls in Airports. * Finish off with the eternal Sunflower River Blues by John Fahey.
7/14/2016 • 11 minutes, 45 seconds
Episode 91 (Natural Habitat)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm
Notes and Reading: * I came to this story the old fashioned way (for me): I saw Su Lin at the Field Museum and needed to know more. That led me inevitably to Vicki Croke’s The Lady and the Panda from 2006. It’s a terrific read. If you have any interest at all in learning more about Ruth Harkness, that’s the place to go. I’ve got a few quibbles here and there, but, for real, it’s delightful. * Quentin Young’s (slightly strange and contested) version of events is told inChasing the Panda by Michael Kiefer. * If you’ve got a few hundred bucks (or a library with more liberal lending policies with old books than mine), why not read Ruth’s own book, The Baby Giant Panda? * If you’re interested in zoos writ large, I’m a fan of Animal Attractions: Nature on Display in American Zoos by Elizabeth Hansen.
Music: * We start with Hush-Maker by Moon Ate the Dark. * Roll on with Freudian Slippers by Chilly Gonzales. * Hear Bibio’s Cherry Blossom Road a couple of times. * Hit up Nice Dream by radio.string.quartet.vienna * Hear Don Redman and his Orchestra play Blue Eyed Baby from Memphis. * The centerpiece of the middle section is Snow Again by Lambert. * We hear a couple of pieces by Dan Romer: An Old Fashioned Man and End of the World. * We finish up on Lullatone’s Falling Asleep With a Book on Your Chest.
7/2/2016 • 27 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 90 (A White Horse)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm
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
6/16/2016 • 11 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 89 (Family Snapshot)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
SPOILERS BELOW
Music * First up is The Homeless Wanderer from Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou off of the Emahoy (Piano Solo) album, number 21 in the unimpeachable Ethiopiques series. * Then we get some of To the Right the Enemy, to the Left the Sea from Simon Rakham. * We finish with Stellify by Francesco Albanese.
Notes * The bulk of the non-technical details from this one comes from Charles Duke’s highly readable memoir, Moonwalker: The True Story of an Astronaut Who Found That the Moon Wasn’t High Enough to Satisfy his Desire for Success. He’s a wonderful story teller and an amiable literary companion. I’ll also note that the end of the book, the last few chapters or so, are really a wonderful, clear-eyed, deeply felt story of how, first, Dottie’s faith, and then Charles’ set the course of the rest of their lives. If that’s the sort of thing that interests you, I really do recommend the book.
6/4/2016 • 12 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 88 (Open Road)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
* Up top, looped, is the first bit of the great, Foreign Fields, by Kacy Hill. * Then we hear some of Sun Will Set, by Zoe Keating. * The song on the radio is Sonny Thompson’s Long Gone, as heard on the Mellow Blues album.
Notes * You can read all of the 1948 Green Book (and the rest of the Green Books) at the New York Public Library’s fantastic digital collection.
5/19/2016 • 9 minutes, 37 seconds
From the Vault: A Special Mother's Day Re-Run
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia. In Toronto? Chicago? Milwaukee? Minneapolis? Come see a live Memory Palace show. For Mothers' Day, this episode is a re-mixed version of a story originally released as Episode 10, in 2009. Back with new episodes next time out. The two piano pieces that bookend the piece are by Max Richter from his “24 Postcards in Full Color” record. The one in the middle is “Maybelle” by Ida. It popped up on shuffle the other day and stunned me. I hadn’t heard it in years. It’s really lovely.
5/7/2016 • 9 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 87 (Victory)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Do you live in Toronto? Chicago? Milwaukee? Minneapolis? How about L.A.? Come see the Memory Palace live this May.
SPOILERS BELOW
Music * We hear Portrait Gallery from Luke Howard. * A smidgen of Julia Kent's lovely Dorval. * The incomparable Moondog's Gloving It pops up a couple times (as it tends to do around these parts). * Denmark by the Portland Cello Project rolls out for quite awhile. * John Lewis and Sacha Distel play the title track from their Afternoon in Paris album. * We hear To, from Zach Cooper's Styles Upon Styles. * There's a bit of Eine Kleine Gamelan Music from The Gamelan Son of Lion (seriously). * Ends on P, by Labradford.
NOTES * The classic text on Charlie Faust is Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times:the Story of the Early Days of Baseball as Told by the Men Who Played It, one of the key texts of early baseball history, first published in 1966. * The definitive resource on Faust is Gabriel Schecter, who's written his biography for SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research, and a monograph called Victory Faust: The Rube Who Saved McGraw's Giants. * I also want to point you to Rob Neyer's lovely piece on visiting Faust's grave.
4/23/2016 • 19 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 86 (Finishing Hold)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Do you live in Toronto? Chicago? Milwaukee? Minneapolis? How about L.A.? Come see the Memory Palace live this May.
SPOILERS BELOW
A Selected Bibliography * Dr. Sam: An American Tragedy by Jack Harrison Pollack * Summer of Shadows: a Murder a Pennant Race and the Twilight of the Best Location in the Nation, by Jonathan Knight, a very readable popular history book that pulls off a maybe-ill-advised trick of balancing the story of the Sheppard case with the Indians 1954 season surprisingly well. * Endure and Conquer, Sam Sheppard and F. Lee Bailey's version of things, written in 1966. Agenda aside, it's a fascinating read. Especially his account of the prison years. * Murder, Culture, and Injustice: Four Sensational Cases in American History, by Walter Hixson. * "Dr. Sam Sheppard The Ex-Convict who Revolutionized Professional Wrestling," from The Wrestler, May, 1970. * The bulk of the details from the last section of story are pulled from contemporary newspaper articles from the Mansfield News-Journal, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the Dover Daily Reporter, The Escanaba Daily Press, the Detroit Free Press, the Nashville Tennessean, The Tyrone Daily Herald, and The Washington Post
Music * We hear a snippet of Runaway by Ólafur Arnalds up top. * Then Debut by Christopher Ferreira. * A bit of Saturday Evening from Tomasz Bednarczyk * Ralph Van Raat plays John Adams' China Gates. * The recurring flute piece is Wasser-Wunder from Tibor Szemző and Group 180 * Deadmau5 plays Invidia. * Lawrence English plays Watching it Unfold. * The radio snippet is a bit of a cheat. It's from the World Series from that year. Only broadcast I could find from '54.
4/8/2016 • 17 minutes, 29 seconds
Episode 85 (AKA Leo)
Notes Research for this story was largely culled from contemporary newspaper accounts. Check back for a list.
Music * We start off (and end) with You by Nils Frahm. * We’ve got Krolock on the Sledge from Komeda’s great, great score to The Fearless Vampire Hunters. * Jett Rink Theme from Dimitri Tiomkin’s score to Giant. * A little loop of Bandstand, from Thomas Newman’s Little Children score. * And Opening, the vibes pieces, by Nathan Bartlett (making a return appearance). * Oh! And Meet the Neighbors from Marcelo Zarvo’s score to the lovely, Please Give. Which has become the go to soundtrack for “Some borderline scam artist has a crazy idea,” here on the Memory Palace.
3/25/2016 • 14 minutes, 11 seconds
Episode 84 (Homesteading)
Notes * I first came the story of Ross, North Dakota, while reading Muslims in America: A Short History, by Edward E. Curtis. * The full WPA interview with Mary Juma (and another member of the Ross community) can be found in Curtis’ The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States. * A contemporary account of the Ross community can be found here.
Music *The first bit is a loop from the opening of a song called I. Permafrost by a long-defunct band called Jerseyturnpike made up of a husband/wife duo from San Francisco. Years ago, I went to their wedding in New Jersey. There was a bounce house. It was beautiful. * The piece finishes up with the on-the-nose, This is Home, from Joel P. West’s soundtrack to the terrific film, Short Term 12.
3/9/2016 • 7 minutes, 28 seconds
Episode 83 (Overland)
Notes Nearly all the research for this one comes straight out of the highly-readable, Cap’n George Fred, G.F. Tilton’s 1925 autobiography. I got my copy at a used bookstore for $11. It’s easy to find on eBay and Amazon and whatnot. Totally money well spent.
Music * First up is Lacrymae by Melodium. * Then we mix in Every Mournful Breath by Slow Meadow * Meeting the Neighbors from Marcelo Zarvos’ score to the delightful, Please Give, makes a return appearance. * There’s Steve Reich’s “Music for Pieces of Wood,” as performed by Smoke and Mirrors Percussion Ensemble. * Yes, that’s Immigrant Song, from Zeppelin III. * There’s a bit of Frost Trees from Lalo Schifrin’s extraordinary score to The Fox, from 1967. * End credits, as always, is Wien, by La Bradford. Buy their music, please.
2/25/2016 • 14 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 82 (The Wheel)
Music * Julia Rovinsky plays Phillip Glass’ Metamorphosis I, from her album Dusk. * There’s an excerpt from Paul Drescher’s “Casa Vecchia,” from the Mirrors: Other Fire album. * There’s a chunk of Jose Gonzalez’ “Instrumental” from his Stay in the ShadeEP. * “Manny Returns Home” from Bernard Hermann’s score to The Wrong Man. * Branka Parlic plays Philip Glass’ “Mad Rush.” Twice. * “Quiet Fan for SK,” by P.G. Six. * Things get heavy to “Particles of the Universe (Heartbeats)” from Dan Romer and Ben Zeitlin’s score to Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Notes There’s a lot written about Robert Smalls, with a lot of contradictory information. I found Edward A. Miller’s Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress particularly useful to sorting it all out. Some other sources I consulted while researching this piece: * The Negro’s Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union by the Don, James McPherson * From Slavery to Public Service: Robert Smalls, 1839-1915, by Okon Uya. * And, for what it’s worth, Robert Smalls: The Boat Thief from RFK Jr.’s American Heroes Series is an enjoyable and surprisingly thorough version of the story for young readers, if you’re ever looking for that sort of thing.
2/11/2016 • 19 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 81 (Below, from Above)
Music
* We start off with Wien, by Labradford. * The guys head out to the work site to Piano 3, from Jon Brion's score to Synecdoche, New York. * Then we hear a bit of Metamorphosis by Vladamir Ussachevsky before being bombarded with bits of Fast Pasture by Todd Reynolds. * There's a long stretch of Fog Tropes by Ingram Marshall * Followed by Fragment I by Library Tapes * Before ending on Berceuse, by Alexandra Sileski.
Notes * This is a story I've been wanting to do forever. In fact, falling in love with the story of the Brooklyn Bridge was one of the things that sent me on a path to doing The Memory Palace at all. So, most of this stuff I just kind of already knew. But it was a particular pleasure to go back and read David McCullough's masterful, lovely The Great Bridge. And to read a ton of contemporary accounts of its construction, particularly the New York Time's piece where the reporter heads down into the Brooklyn Caisson.
1/27/2016 • 17 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode (M): Gallery 742
A special episode of the Memory Palace commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to coincide with the opening of Rockefeller-Worsham Dressing Room in Gallery 742 of The American Wing and with Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age, an exhibition open now through May 1st, 2016.
This piece is ideally consumed on site, in Gallery 742 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Written and Produced by Nate DiMeo of [The Memory Palace.](thememorypalace.us)
Musical score by Jimmy LaValle of The Album Leaf.
Executive Producer, Limor Tomer, General Manager of Concerts & Lectures, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
12/17/2015 • 11 minutes, 36 seconds
Episode 80 (Shore Leave)
Music* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.* First up is one of my very favorite recordings of all time: Andromeda from Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath. One of the finest bands ever assembled. * The sailors get grumpy to Sito from Pierre Favre and the European Chamber Ensemble. (The end drum loop comes from that piece too). * The guys run off to save the day to Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor doing the Green Groves of Erin.* That turns into, In Threes by Loscil.
Notes* Some of the details in here originate from a fine piece that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in May of 1944. You can read it here.* Other solid write ups: From The Book of New York The U.S.C.G. The Fire-fighter's Museum
11/19/2015 • 12 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 79 (Artist in Landscape)
Music * Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score. * They first meet to a piece called Brouillard (version 1) from Georges Delaure's extraordinary score to Jules et Jim. (A second version comes in later when J.J. Audubon is living the high life in England). * We also hear Waltz by Mother Falcon. * I go back to the Marcelo Zarvos/Please Give well when the Scotsman arrives at their store. Note: it's the go-to soundtrack for "People Arriving at One's Store With A Life Changing Proposition" here at the Memory Palace. Also: go watch Please Give. * The little piano piece is from Nathan Johnson's score to The Day I Saw Your Heart. * Lucy and John titter like plovers to Andrew Cyrille's dope, skittering drums on Nuba 1. * The especially sad bit, right before the end is Dream 3 (in the Midst of my Life), from Max Richter's giant, From Sleep album. * A couple times, including the ending, we hear "the Lark Ascending" from Ralph Vaughn Willliams. It is beautiful. You should buy it.
Notes As per usual, I read a lot about the Audubons and the Bakewells. I relied most upon the charming and smart, On the Road with John James Audubon by Mary Durant, and Carolyn DeLatte's lovely, thoughtful book, Lucy Audubon: a Biography. * Just a quick note: there's a very enjoyable PBS/American Masters/Nature documentary about Audubon. It's a fun and informative watch. But, I'll say, you come out of that thinking that things were fundamentally swell between Lucy and John in a way that I'm not entirely sure is supported by the facts. Or jibes with, you know, human nature.
11/12/2015 • 19 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 78 (no. 116,842)
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Music* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.* First bit is called Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears by A Winged Victory for the Sullen from their self-titled album. * A brief bit of Occam II for Violin by Silvia Tarrozi scores the shuttle accident (non-NASA category). * We've got Eloy by Deaf Center. * Finish out with Call from Julianna Barwick's album Pacing.
Notes* There's no, proper, grown-up biography of Margaret Knight (as far as I've been able to locate). Though there are a handful of kid's books of varying degrees of charm and accuracy. She does pop up in a fair amount of "Lady Inventors!!!" collections. I read a bunch of these, but I want to single out one for its rigor: Autumn Stanley's Mothers and Daughters of Invention.
11/5/2015 • 13 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 77 (Butterflies)
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Music* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.* First up is "Adultere bourgeoise," a piece from Paul Misraki's score to A Double tour.* Then we've got a piece called "Night Time Talk" by Stephen J. Anderson. * We hit For the Trees by Matmos a couple of times (the bit after: "the facts were these," or whatever I say)* Frank Durr's theme is P from that first LaBradford album, all those years ago. * The score for the House of Butterflies is called Fragment II by Library Tapes. It comes back again toward the end.* We also hear Invidia, by Deadmaus. That's the one we finish on.
Notes* Several essays were very helpful in researching this. Among those were: -http://pittmed.health.pitt.edu/jan_2001/butterflies.pdf-http://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead/-http://www.wired.com/2013/01/looney-gas-and-lead-poisoning-a-short-sad-history/* I found William J. Kovarik's Dissertation, The Ethyl Controversy:How the News Media Set the Agenda for a Public Health Controversy over the use of Leaded Gasoline, 1924-1926, completely fascinating. * I relied on a number of papers from the W.H.O. when researching the health effects of lead and ozone depletion.* Here's the New York Times original expose about the House of Butterflies.* Finally, Thomas Midgely, IV's biography of his grandfather, From the Periodic Table to Production: The Life of Thomas Midgely, Jr., inventor of Leaded Gasoline and Freon Refrigerants, is, while unsurprisingly hagiographic, both well-researched and highly readable.
10/27/2015 • 20 minutes, 10 seconds
Episode 76 (Mary Walker Would Wear What She Wanted)
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Music*Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.*The piece opens with Rainfall, by David Darling and Michael Jones. *Her brief love story is scored by Nathan Johnson's Penelope's Theme from his score to The Brothers Bloom.*When she lands her first gig, we start Garde a Vue, and roll into Le Roi de coeur, from Chantal Martineau.* The vibraphone piece is "Opening" by Nathaniel Bartlett. * The recurring violin piece is called Geometria del Universo by the one-named Colleen. * It ends on Romain's First Love, again by Georges Delarue, from his fantastic score to Promise at Dawn.
Notes* I read a lot about Mary, but by far the most useful and most thorough works I came upon were: Sharon M. Harris' Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical and A Woman of Honor: Dr. Mary E. Walker and the Civil War, in which author Mercedes Graf does a great job walking the reader through Walker's unpublished memoir.
10/19/2015 • 11 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 75 (The Ballad of Captain Dwight)
The finale of the 2015 Summer Season.
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.
* There's Branches, by Keith Kenniff
* Then The Big Ocean, from Ben Sollee's score to Maidentrip.
* Then End of the World from Dan Romer's score to Beasts of the Southern Wild.
* There's The Sage, pulling once more from the dope-as-hell self-titled album from the Chico Hamilton Quintet.
* There's a loop pulled from Worm is Green's song, Brand New Day
* There's The Light, from my pal Jimmy's wonderful project, The Album Leaf. Go buy their albums.
* The piece at the end is the theme to Charlie Countryman from Christophe Beck's score.
* Oh: stuff gets heavy to Ghosts I from Nine Inch Nails.
* And finally (though out of order), playing over the fall-out from JFK's death is Now by Goldmund.
Notes
A selected bibliography.
* We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program, by Richard Paul and Steven Moss
* Voices of Contemporary and Historical Black Pioneers, Farmer & Shepard-Wynn, editors
* The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe
* Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Sciences, by Gulbert, Sawyer, and Fannin
* The All-American Boys, Walt Cunningham's memoir.
* The Ebony article mentioned in the piece can be read here.
8/28/2015 • 20 minutes, 49 seconds
Episode 74 (Craning)
Episode 9 of the 2015 Summer Season.
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.
* There're too pieces from Per Storby Jutbring's album, Dance of the Diaper Fairy. Snowbound, up top, and the title track at the end.
Notes
* Hoo boy, have I read a ton of books about the space program, thanks to my stint on the writing staff of ABC's Astronauts' Wives Club last year. So, most of this piece is just "stuff I now know." However: read numerous contemporary newspaper accounts, readily available on
* Also key was the lovely prologue to First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong, James R. Hanson's solid (if a little hagiographic) bio.
8/20/2015 • 10 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 73 (Notes on an Imagined Plaque to be Added to the Statue of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Upon Hearing that the Memphis City Counci has Voted to Move it and the Exhumed Remains of General Forrest and his Wife, Mary Ann Montgomery Forrest, from
Episode 8 of the 2015 Summer Season
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.
* First up (and returning at the end) is Sandra's Theme, from Heather McIntosh's fantastic score to Compliance, a very good, very disturbing movie.
* We hit Frank Glazer leading Charles Ives' Largo for Clarinet, Violin and Piano a couple of times, framing...
* Runaway from Olafur Arnalds.
Notes:
*The key to researching this episode turned out to be an article in The Journal of Southern History from 2001 by Court Carnay called, "The Contested Image of Nathan Bedford Forrest.".
* Also particularly useful was Nathan Bedford Forrest: a Biography, by Jack Hurst.
* As was Lynching in America: A History in Documents, compiled by Christopher Waldrep.
* Much of my information about the contents of the ceremony and speeches was gathered from this, the digitized journal and scrapbook of Charles Henry Niehaus, the sculptor of the monument. It's an extraordinary resource.
* And let us all read Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases, by Ida B. Wells. And let's put her on the $10 while we're at it.
8/13/2015 • 13 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 72 (Run-of-the-River)
Episode 7 of the 2015 Summer Season.
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.
* First up (and returning a bit later) is Mr. Reincarnation from Alexander Desplat's dope-as-hell score to the fairly dope movie, Birth.
* There's Lost Fur, Reprise from Carter Burwell's Where the Wild Things Are score.
* Then there's a Charles Ives piece called Remembrance, played by Yesaroun' Duo, Eric Hewitt and Samuel Z. Soloman.
* Then we hit Another Lifetime, dipping back in the Birth Score well.
* Finish up with Kierling/Doubt from Max Richters 24 Postcards in Full Color.
8/3/2015 • 11 minutes, 10 seconds
Episode 71 (Zulu Charlie Romeo)
Episode 6 of the 2015 Summer Season.
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.
* First up, A Nice Day from a truly wonderful album, The Original Chico Hamilton Quintet Complete Studio Recordings.
* Then there's Ohnono/Kiwembo, Andrew Bird's contribution to Tradi-Mods Vs. Rockers - Alternative Takes on Congotronics, Vol. 1 (which is a great rabbit hole to go down).
* Anita gets introduced to Hay Tantos Muertos, by Marissa Nadler.
* Then falls in love to Hymn of Silence by Silencio
* Then there're two pieces from Nathan Johnson's score to The Day I Saw Your Heart.
7/27/2015 • 12 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 70 (Developments in the Design and Manufacture of American Menswear 1840-1860, a Fable)
Episode 5 of the 2015 Summer Season.
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.
* The main mountain theme is Mort D'Eurydice, by Pierre Favre as played by the European Chamber Ensemble.
* There's a second string-y snippet of another by them called, Sito.
* We learn about beavers to Stereo Music for Acoustic Guitar, Buchla Music Box 100 (etc.)...Pt. 2 from Keith Fullerton Whitman's old Multiples album.
* The soft men are embodied by 3-Sized PF by Takahiro Kido from his Fairy Tale album.
* I roll out some more Miguel Atwood-Ferguson with Arioso from Red Hot & Bach to track the tall tales of the west.
7/20/2015 • 11 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 69 (Charlie: God of Rain)
Episode 4 of the 2015 Summer Season.
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.
* Charlie on the ladder is scored with the Prologue to the fantastic score to the film Birth, by Alexandre Desplat
* It ends with Opus 30, by Dustin O'Hallaran.
* The upbeat, fair music is a piece called Love on Matthew Herbert's contribution to the Life in a Day soundtrack.
* Don Stewart surveys the damage to 01 Ghosts I by NIN
7/13/2015 • 16 minutes, 51 seconds
Episode 68 (White Heat, White Lights)
Episode 3 of the Summer Season.
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.
* The opening loop is from Mr. Knight from Coltrane Plays the Blues, which you should own.
* The violin piece is Occam II for Violin, a piece by Silvia Tarozzi, played by Pauline Oliveros.
* Next up is Mikuro's Blues from the mighty David S. Ware' mighty Go See the World.
* The amazing orchestral pieces is Triumph by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Nino from Fill the Heart- Shaped Cup
* Finally, there's 13 Ghosts II by Nine Inch Nails from Ghosts I-IV
7/6/2015 • 9 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 67 (Every Night Ever)
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.
* Then, we have the most obvious crickets/summer night song ever: the fantastic, perpetually delightful Green Arrow from Yo La Tengo's I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, which has soundtracked many crickety summer nights for me over the years.
* The cops roll in to a loop of the very beginning of the epic Ptah, the El Daoud, the title track to Alice Coltrane's album from 1970.
* Then we have a mix of two improvisations from Charles Cohen's Brother I Prove You Wrong: Cloud Hands and The Boy and the Snake Dance.
* There's a brief dip into Dorian, by Fang Island.
* The jaunty accordion, typewriter thing is Biking is Better on Wintergatan's eponymous album.
Notes
I researched this one primarily through old newspapers. The easiest place to find a number of them is to read the excellent site, The Museum of Hoaxes' page on this event. Also: if you're in the Atlanta area and ever want to have yourself a day, you can see the actual monkey. It's preserved in a jar at the Georgia Bureau of Investigations museum in Decatur Georgia.
6/29/2015 • 11 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 66 (The Pirate Queen)
The music:
*Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's great, ridiculous Modesty Blaise score.
*The recurring piano theme is Les Marionettes by Zbigniew Preisner from his score to La Double Vie de Veronique (And, have you seen The Double Life of Veronique? Man, that's good)
*Eugenia's dreamy little theme is Just Saying by Jamie XX off of In Colour
*That organ track is called Organ Track by Nicolai Dunger from The Cloud is Learning
*Al Davis' dance theme is Watusi Bounce from Bo Diddly's Ride On/The Chess Masters
*Helen watches Eugenia on the lawn at the Grand Hotel to the tune of To a Wild Rose by Patricia Rossborough from the collection Dainty Debutantes: Female Novelty Pianists of the 1930's (And, ugh. Dismissive much?)
*The Judge drones over one of Scott Watson's Six Solos for the Beginning Tuba Player from his 2008 album, Stepping Stones for Tuba, vol. 1 (like I need to tell you that)
*The ending piece is Mike Andrews lovely Library Chant from his score to Miranda July's lovely Me and You and Everyone we Know
Notes:
I first stumbled across this story in my torn up copy of New York: Confidential! Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer's truly mucky, muck-raking guide to the city's underbelly from 1951. I read a ton of old news paper articles about the case (the New York Times covered it extensively, if you want to go back and read those).
The two most useful books I came across in the process were Joshua Zeitz' Flapper and Lewis Erenberg's Steppin' Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of American Culture, 1890-1930
6/21/2015 • 19 minutes, 21 seconds
HIgh Above Lake Michigan: Special Platinum Edition
Something to listen to while you wait for the new season of The Memory Palace, launching June 21st with weekly episodes through the whole summer.
5/27/2015 • 7 minutes, 16 seconds
Forgotten Things: A Failed Pilot
Did a pilot for Fox Digital Studios some time ago. Didn't actually go anywhere (except for a film festival or two).
5/7/2015 • 2 minutes, 30 seconds
Itty Bitty Bombs: Special Platinum Edition
While you wait until June 21st for the Season of the Memory Palace, here's a new version of an old favorite.
4/16/2015 • 6 minutes, 3 seconds
The Brothers Booth Schmancy Platinum Remaster Edition
While you wait until June 21st for the Season of the Memory Palace, here's a new version of an old favorite.
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3/16/2015 • 13 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 64 (The 7th Story)
Episode 64.
1/15/2015 • 12 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 63 (Other Bodies)
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The music in this one: "An Ending, A Beginning" by Dustin O'Halloran. "I am Piano" by Peter Broderick. Two songs from the soundtrack to "With a Song in my Heart": American Medley, and That Old Feeling. The one at the end is "I'll Never be the Same." My version's on a collection called "Can't get out of this Mood." There are also a couple of other Jane things that I found on You Tube. The plane crash stuff is scored by a piece of Claudia Serne and Leopold Ross' soundtrack for "Broken City," called "Missing Pieces." Then there's a song by The Caretaker called "Stairway to the Stars."
I read a lot about Jane for this but nothing was as useful as Ilene Stone's lovely book,"Jane Froman: Missouri's First Lady of Song."
10/16/2014 • 14 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 62 (We've Forgotten James Powell)
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The music pulled from "Blue Sands" by the Chico Hamilton Trio.
7/17/2014 • 5 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 61 (The Glowing Orbs)
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6/8/2014 • 8 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 60 (400,000 Stars)
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3/23/2014 • 10 minutes, 32 seconds
Episode 59 (Harriet Quimby)
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1/31/2014 • 6 minutes, 14 seconds
Episode 58 (Shadowboxing)
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12/17/2013 • 10 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 57 (I'm Still Alive)
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10/31/2013 • 9 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 56 (The Rush of the River and the Roar of the Falls)
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There are two pieces of music in this: one is a tweaked loop from "To Here Knows When" by MBV. The other is "Stereo Music for Acoustic Guitar, Bucla Music Box 100, HP Model 236 Oscillator, Electric Guitars, and Computer - Part One" by Keith Fullerton Whitman.
9/20/2013 • 6 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 55 (O, How We Danced)
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7/30/2013 • 7 minutes, 19 seconds
Episode 54 (Origin Stories)
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6/29/2013 • 13 minutes, 1 second
Episode 53 (Guinea Pigs)
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5/8/2013 • 6 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 52 (Six Stories)
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4/1/2013 • 13 minutes, 21 seconds
Episode 51 (Giants in Those Days)
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3/7/2013 • 12 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 50 (Fifty Words Written After Learning That the Arctic Bowhead Whale Can Live up to 200 Years)
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1/29/2013 • 3 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 49 (Dreamland)
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12/14/2012 • 6 minutes, 55 seconds
Episode 48 (Picture a Box)
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11/20/2012 • 14 minutes, 47 seconds
Episode 47 (The Rise and Fall of Rising and Falling) *NOTE: semi-adult language in this one.
Note: there is some semi-adult language in this one.
10/15/2012 • 10 minutes, 14 seconds
Episode 46 (After Party)
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9/14/2012 • 14 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 45 (Heard, Once)
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7/26/2012 • 10 minutes, 39 seconds
Episode 44 (Distance)
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3/25/2012 • 5 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 43 (Far Below Lake Michigan)
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12/6/2011 • 3 minutes, 47 seconds
Episode 42 (What They Saw)
This piece was originally commissioned by Slate.com.
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11/8/2011 • 8 minutes
Episode 41 (Mary, Mary, and Mercy)
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10/28/2011 • 7 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 40 (Crazy Bet)
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9/29/2011 • 10 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 39 (Road Trip)
This piece was originally commissioned by Slate.com.
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8/23/2011 • 7 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 38 (A Stretch)
This piece was originally commissioned by 99% Invisible.
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7/6/2011 • 9 minutes, 36 seconds
Episode 37 (Natural Curiosity)
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Nate
1/27/2011 • 9 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 36 (Six Scenes in the Life of William J. Sidis, Wonderful Boy)
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Nate
1/7/2011 • 16 minutes, 52 seconds
Episode 35 (A Brief Eulogy for a Consumer Electronics Product)
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Nate
10/27/2010 • 4 minutes, 21 seconds
Episode 34 (Soldier Frum)
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9/20/2010 • 10 minutes, 13 seconds
Episode 33 (Lost Lobsters)
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8/25/2010 • 8 minutes, 6 seconds
Episode 32 (Gigantic)
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7/3/2010 • 9 minutes, 39 seconds
Episode 31 (Looking Up)
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6/15/2010 • 7 minutes, 1 second
Episode 30 (Nee Weinberg)
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5/11/2010 • 11 minutes, 21 seconds
Episode 29 (OMG!!! JKP!!!)
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4/14/2010 • 4 minutes, 39 seconds
Episode 28 (Babysitting)
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4/1/2010 • 7 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 27 (The Sisters Fox)
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3/13/2010 • 12 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 26 (Citius, Altius, Fortius, Horrendius)
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2/25/2010 • 9 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 25 (I Have Not Yet Begun to Rot)
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2/1/2010 • 9 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 24 (The Moon in the Sun)
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1/15/2010 • 7 minutes, 53 seconds
Episode 23 (400 Words for 79th Street)
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12/11/2009 • 8 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 22 (You Know You’re Sick)
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11/20/2009 • 7 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 21 (A Gas Gas Gas)
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10/28/2009 • 8 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 20 (This Ungainly Fowl)
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10/16/2009 • 7 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 19 (Dam!)
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9/28/2009 • 6 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 18 (Dig Set Spike)
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8/28/2009 • 7 minutes, 32 seconds
Episode 17 (Plummeting Approval)
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8/7/2009 • 7 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 16 (Secret Kitty)
No animals were harmed in the making of this episode.
7/24/2009 • 6 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 15 (Presidente Walker)
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7/16/2009 • 8 minutes, 10 seconds
Episode 14 (The Messrs. Craft)
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7/6/2009 • 8 minutes, 28 seconds
Episode 13 (High Above Lake Michigan)
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6/16/2009 • 6 minutes, 55 seconds
Episode 12 (These Words, Forever)
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6/1/2009 • 5 minutes, 47 seconds
Episode 11 (The Brothers Booth)
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5/22/2009 • 7 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 10 (International Brotherhood of Mothers)
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5/10/2009 • 6 minutes, 47 seconds
Episode 9 (Ben Franklin Death Ray)
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4/11/2009 • 4 minutes, 51 seconds
Episode 8 (The World Within the World)
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3/26/2009 • 7 minutes, 51 seconds
Episode 7 (Li’l Nipper)
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3/9/2009 • 4 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 6 (The Saddest President)
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2/17/2009 • 5 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 5 (Oh My!)
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1/30/2009 • 3 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 4 (Itty Bitty Bombs)
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1/22/2009 • 5 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 3 (High Societies)
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1/13/2009 • 5 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 2 (Lost Pigeons)
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12/20/2008 • 5 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 1 (Horrible Deaths)
This is the very first episode of The Memory Palace. Done a gajillion years ago to test out a theory about radio storytelling. You do not have to start here. In fact, maybe you shouldn't. It's a little grim. The rest are not.
Nate