Special Episode: Dr. Charan Ranganath & Why We Remember

10/08/24 • 57 min

3 Listeners

How is it that we can’t remember where we put our keys or the name of the person we just met, but we can recall in excruciating detail the embarrassing interaction we had at the grocery store ten years ago? Sometimes it seems like our memory works against us more than it does for us. But, as it turns out, this aspect of our memory is more a feature than a bug, and the key to understanding the difference may lie in our evolutionary history. Dr. Charan Ranganath, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California at Davis, joins us today to discuss his book Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters. Dr. Ranganath deftly guides readers through not only the “how” of memory formation but also the “why”, helping us to understand why we remember certain things and forget others. Tune in for a fascinating discussion ranging from the importance of context (like smell) in memory to the different types of memory, from decision-making to memory competitions, and so much more!

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Previous Episode

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Next Episode

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This Podcast Will Kill You - Special Episode: Dr. Charan Ranganath & Why We Remember

Transcript

Speaker 100:00:43.679

Hi, I'm Aaron Welsh, and this is this podcast will Kill You. Welcome to another of our tp w k Y book Club episodes, where we get to explore a science or medicine book beyond the pages by asking the author all sorts of questions for about forty five minutes or so. As you've probably heard me say, it's one of my favorite parts of putting this podcast together, and I hope that you're enjoying it too. If you are or if you're not, we'd love to hear fr