Hey, I'm Sean, host of the Gray Area,
00:00
coming to you this week from a balcony
00:03
in sunny Denver, Colorado. For the show
00:06
this week, I talked to Charon Ranganoth.
00:09
He's a neuroscientist and author of the
00:11
book Why We Remember. It's one of my
00:14
favorite conversations we've had in a
00:17
while. It's a terrific book about how
00:19
memory works, why we remember what we
00:21
remember, and why we forget what we
00:23
forget, and how much of our memory is
00:25
actually just us making stuff up, and
00:28
how all of that shapes our identities as
00:31
individuals and also really as
00:34
societies. Anyway, it's terrific. I
00:37
think you'll love it. I did. And I'll
00:39
>> Dr. Shron Ragenoth, welcome to the show.
00:43
>> Thanks for having me, Sean. It's a
00:46
pleasure. Uh it's been too long since we
00:48
had a legit full-blown scientist on the
00:51
>> lots of pressure there.
00:56
>> Yeah, you got to carry the banner. Um
00:57
let's get into this wonderful book um
01:00
you wrote. I learned a lot. And
01:02
one of the things you say very early on
01:06
the most important message to come out
01:11
of the whole science of memory isn't
01:13
that we should remember more, which is
01:16
what everyone just naturally wants to
01:18
do. You say that we actually have the
01:20
wrong expectation about what memory is
01:21
actually for. So I just wanted to start
01:25
there. What is memory for?
01:27
>> Well, I can tell you what it's not for.
01:30
And this is where the wrong expectation
01:32
comes in. It's not for storing and
01:34
hoarding every experience from the past.
01:36
It's about really giving us a resource
01:39
that we can draw upon to understand
01:42
what's happening right here and now and
01:44
to plan ahead and to anticipate what
01:47
could happen in the future.
01:49
people say I have a bad memory, my
01:55
memory sucks, my memory is spotty. What
01:58
do you think they're actually
02:01
misunderstanding about how memory
02:03
>> Yeah, I mean it's a great question. I
02:06
have that voice in my head too that says
02:07
I have a terrible memory, right? But uh
02:10
I've been saying that for a long time
02:12
and I never struggled in school. Um I
02:14
could always remember things that I
02:18
needed to for work for instance. And it
02:22
wasn't so much that I had a bad memory
02:25
as much as I couldn't always remember
02:28
what I felt was important in the moment
02:31
when I needed it. And I think that's
02:33
what sometimes people feel. Uh but if
02:36
somebody really has a bad memory, like a
02:39
bad memory, they couldn't function in
02:42
life, they couldn't work, they couldn't
02:44
live independently. And I know cuz I've
02:46
I've tested people and I've I've
02:48
interviewed patients with bad really bad
02:50
clinically bad memories and they just
02:53
can't function. So I think often when I
02:55
see people complain about their memory,
02:58
they're often hyperfunctioning people
03:00
who just feel like they should be
03:03
remembering everything. And so that
03:05
that's what I'm talking about is I'm
03:07
really addressing those people.
03:09
So if a truly bad memory means you can't
03:11
function as an adult in the world, fair
03:16
enough. But clearly some memories are
03:19
better than others, right? Or or is the
03:21
mistake my mistake insisting on using
03:23
words like better or worse?
03:25
>> That's exactly the mistake is using
03:27
words like better or worse, right? So
03:29
it's often and I say that meaning that
03:31
people often conflate more with better.
03:35
So here here's a good example of this,
03:39
right? So there's people who have what's
03:40
called highly superior autobiographical
03:43
memory. So these are people who can go
03:45
back years into the past and recall from
03:47
a particular date like what they did for
03:51
what they had for breakfast or you know
03:54
who won a baseball game that day and
03:56
what the score was, the weather um that
03:58
day. Um all of these details that most
04:01
uh neurotypical people would not
04:05
remember, right? And so you'd think,
04:07
okay, these people have a great memory.
04:09
Uh but for one, they don't in the sense
04:12
that if you ask them to learn a new
04:14
language, they will probably learn at
04:18
the same speed as anyone who doesn't
04:20
have highly superior autobiographical
04:23
memory. Um based on the research that's
04:25
out there so far, there doesn't seem to
04:27
be some kind of a benefit that makes
04:30
them just better at everything. Um, the
04:32
second thing is we know if you look at
04:35
reports from people with highly superior
04:39
autobiographical memory, it's not like
04:41
they're like Bradley Cooper on
04:43
Limitless. They're not like uh
04:44
controlling the world. They're not any
04:47
more happy or successful than other
04:50
people as far as we can tell. And if
04:52
anything, they're a little bit plagued
04:54
by this memory because they often will
04:56
ruminate about things that happened,
04:59
even very minor things that happened
05:02
that were negative. And so, is that a
05:03
better memory? I mean, some people
05:06
online I've seen have described it as a
05:07
curse that they wouldn't wish on anyone.
05:10
>> Yeah. I mean, I don't want to be, you
05:12
know, Rainman or or Bradley Cooper here.
05:15
Um, but I'm sure I'm not alone.
05:17
>> Well, I wouldn't be I wouldn't mind
05:20
being Bradley Cooper for a day, but
05:21
I'm sure he has his own issues.
05:24
Everybody does, right?
05:26
>> Fair. Um, it would be fun to be more
05:26
handsome for a day. But sorry about
05:29
that. Uh my question would be why is it
05:31
that I can have near photographic
05:34
memories about certain things uh certain
05:38
books, certain events, other mostly
05:41
random stupid trivial stuff and have so
05:44
little capacity so often to remember
05:47
things like faces and names even though
05:51
I'd very much like to remember faces and
05:53
names. And I think there are very good
05:56
reasons, moral, uh, social, whatever, to
05:59
remember faces and names. And yet I just
06:02
botch it. U, why is that?
06:07
>> Well, there's a whole lot of reasons.
06:11
But, um, if we, uh, talk about the
06:13
problem of faces and names, this is
06:16
something that everyone who complains
06:17
about memory, this is the first thing
06:20
that comes up. So, you're not alone.
06:22
Essentially, when we're trying to pull
06:24
information from memory, we have a
06:26
challenge which is that memories compete
06:29
with each other. So any experience that
06:31
we have uh there's all sorts of
06:34
competition for it. And just as an
06:37
analogy, you know, my desk right now,
06:39
I'm trying to gather information for my
06:40
taxes cuz I postpone them and I spend a
06:42
good amount of time trying to find
06:45
things all the time, right? And so
06:46
memory can be thought of in a very
06:49
similar way that when you have a lot of
06:51
similar things cluttered around and not
06:53
organized, you're going to have a lot of
06:56
competition, a lot of trouble finding
06:58
it. But if there was one thing that
07:00
truly stood out here, like if I had a
07:03
violin amidst all these other things, I
07:05
would be able to find that pretty
07:08
easily, right? Um, so here's the problem
07:09
now getting back to faces and names is
07:12
we hear many many similar names.
07:15
Sometimes the same name attached to
07:18
multiple faces, right? And faces are
07:20
exceptionally similar to one another.
07:23
There's obviously your face is different
07:26
from mine, but we both have two eyes, we
07:28
have a nose, we have mouths. And even
07:31
amongst, you know, people we know well,
07:35
there's often a lot of similarity. Uh so
07:38
now we have a real problem is that we
07:41
have a bunch of faces that kind of are
07:42
similar to each other. There's a number
07:44
of names that are similar to one another
07:46
that we've seen in the past. And the
07:49
association between a name and a face is
07:51
just utterly ridiculous, right? I mean,
07:53
how do you there's nothing meaningful
07:56
linking a name to a face. So if you met
07:58
somebody whose name was Baker, you know,
08:01
hundreds of years ago, that would be
08:03
easier because at least they were
08:05
probably baking bread and you know, or
08:07
Smith would be the guy who's making your
08:10
suit of armor or your swords or
08:11
whatever, right? And so now there's just
08:13
no link between names and faces. There's
08:15
nothing meaningful there. So that's why
08:18
>> How differently does memory function at
08:22
different stages of life? I think we all
08:26
understand that memory declines
08:29
uh as we get older, but there are
08:32
certain kinds of memory that seem to
08:34
hold up better than others as we age,
08:36
right? What is the reason for that?
08:39
>> Let's get into the different kinds of
08:42
memory first of all. So, um there's many
08:43
different kinds of memory. memory
08:46
researchers love to slice them and dice
08:48
them in different ways, but one that I
08:49
think is meaningful, especially when we
08:53
talk about development, is the
08:54
distinction between what's called
08:56
semantic memory and episodic memory. And
08:57
so semantic memory might be like, you
09:01
know, remembering uh something about,
09:04
let's say, like uh um you know, a
09:07
history lesson that you took when you
09:09
were in high school and remembering the
09:11
facts about World War II or being able
09:13
to build knowledge about like uh
09:16
computers or something like that and
09:20
that kind of expertise that you can
09:21
build up. Uh, but episodic memory is the
09:23
ability to link something to one
09:26
particular moment in time, like a movie
09:28
that you saw about World War II when you
09:31
were on a strange date when you were in
09:33
college or something and for some reason
09:37
you decided to see an old showing of
09:38
Midway or whatever it is, right? Um, and
09:40
those particular events that are unique
09:43
to a place in a time are called episodic
09:46
memories. And so when people say their
09:49
memory gets worse as they get older,
09:52
they're almost always talking about
09:54
episodic memory, which is that uh people
09:56
when you get older, you find yourself
10:00
more forgetful, misplacing things and
10:03
not being able to remember where they
10:05
were or not being able to remember faces
10:07
and names. Semantic memory actually
10:10
remains solid and even kind of improves
10:13
a little bit as people get older. um
10:15
that knowledge about the world. It's not
10:18
like when you're 70, you lose knowledge
10:20
about all the things that you've
10:23
learned, all that wisdom, so to speak,
10:25
right? So, what you do lose though is
10:27
the ability to pull up those facts
10:30
sometimes. And so, you'll end up being
10:33
like, I know the name of that actor, but
10:35
I can't get it. It's that guy who's in
10:38
that thing. And that happens a lot, too.
10:41
And that's not a issue of losing the
10:43
memory or not being able to form
10:45
semantic memories as much as it is a
10:47
problem of not being able to pull up
10:49
that information. And that has to do
10:52
with something else altogether which we
10:54
call executive function. And in fact,
10:56
that's actually probably one of the
10:59
biggest reasons why memory gets episodic
11:01
memory gets worse as you get older is
11:03
you lose that ability to regulate your
11:06
attention, that ability to pull up
11:08
strategies, that ability to kind of like
11:10
not just make memories, but make
11:13
memories useful. And that's related to
11:15
the functions of an area called the
11:18
prefrontal cortex. And the prefrontal
11:20
cortex's function starts to decline
11:22
pretty much from the age of 30. And it's
11:24
a gradual decline in most people that
11:26
continues throughout the lifespan.
11:29
>> I'm on the wrong side of that.
11:31
>> Yeah, me too. I always tell people the
11:33
biggest memory hack I can give is to
11:36
tell people what do you want? Tell ask
11:39
yourself what do I want to remember in
11:42
the first place? What's the important
11:44
thing that I need to take away from
11:45
this? If you came in to a cocktail party
11:47
and you knew you wanted to be a good
11:50
person and meet all, you know, get to
11:53
know the names of all the people you
11:55
meet and remember them, then start with
11:56
that intention. Most people think that
11:59
they'll get the memories for free and
12:01
that's just wrong. There are studies
12:03
showing that the happiness and
12:06
satisfaction we get from the outcomes of
12:10
our decisions do not come as you might
12:14
expect from what we actually experienced
12:19
but rather it comes from what we
12:22
That seems like a pretty significant
12:26
finding. What is the explanation for
12:28
Well, memory really is so transient. And
12:32
what I mean by this is is that we don't
12:37
forget everything, right? But we forget
12:39
many of the details very, very quickly.
12:41
Some of the earliest studies of memory
12:44
showed that in fact within about one
12:46
hour of memorizing things that you would
12:50
lose about 60% of what you tried to
12:53
>> Now, think about that. That's like 60%
12:56
of the details of your experiencing self
12:59
at this moment gone in an hour right
13:03
now. That doesn't mean that you don't
13:07
remember anything. But uh Danny Conaman
13:08
who won the Nobel Prize in economics, he
13:11
was actually said a lot of smart things
13:14
about memory. Like he just said smart
13:16
things about a lot of things, but one
13:18
was memory where he said people
13:19
generally remember the beginnings and
13:21
the endings and the highs and the lows.
13:23
And that in some ways is the important
13:25
stuff that you need for making a
13:28
decision, not necessarily every bit of
13:30
>> One takeaway for me here is is that the
13:34
stories we tell ourselves u the the
13:38
narratives that make up our memory
13:41
really matter in terms of our
13:43
well-being. And that would seem to mean
13:47
that we could gain more happiness in
13:49
life by deliberately focusing on the
13:52
right things by trying to remember the
13:56
>> I think that was a beautiful way of
14:00
putting it. Um I like to say that memory
14:02
is more like a painting than a
14:04
photograph. You know, there's a famous
14:06
painting by Van Go of this uh French
14:08
church, and I like to show this
14:10
sometimes when I'm talking to people uh
14:12
and people will immediately recognize
14:14
the painting as one of the church,
14:16
right? But it by no means is exactly
14:18
like the church that's there. I mean,
14:22
there's a lot of stuff that's could be
14:24
thought of as missing or distorted
14:26
relative to what's in the church itself,
14:28
what what it looks like, but there's a
14:30
lot that's just his perspective that's
14:32
in there. And that's what makes a
14:34
painting beautiful in some ways is stuff
14:36
that's neither accurate nor inaccurate,
14:38
but it's just how the person sees the
14:41
world. He painted it at night. You could
14:42
have just as easily painted it in the
14:44
morning. You could paint it from a
14:45
different point of view. You could paint
14:48
it small. You could paint it big. You
14:50
could look at one door, you know? And
14:52
every time we remember an event, we're
14:55
creating a new painting, right? So often
14:57
people will tell me about good and bad
15:01
memories, good and bad experiences, but
15:03
that can change. And I think even though
15:06
that seems a little bit
15:09
counterintuitive, I think many of us
15:10
have had times in our life which were
15:12
bad, sometimes terrible, and we can look
15:17
back on that from a completely different
15:19
point of view. So in my book I talk
15:21
about an experience which just like
15:23
almost everything that could go wrong
15:26
did go wrong when I was going on this
15:27
paddle boarding expedition
15:29
almost died you know in that thing and
15:32
now it's a pretty funny story I really
15:35
like to share it. Yeah. Well that that
15:37
story actually in the book made me think
15:39
trauma and memory and even worse kinds
15:44
of traumatic experiences than
15:47
>> than that. Right. Right. I mean, so for
15:49
someone who's been through uh real
15:51
trauma, uh just terrible, terrible
15:54
can feel impossible. I mean, how do
15:59
traumatic memories differ from ordinary
16:01
memories in the brain? Do they differ at
16:05
>> Oh, they do for sure. Um for one thing,
16:07
the brain is wired in a way to
16:10
preferentially keep memories for things
16:13
that are emotionally significant. And
16:16
the reason is our emotions are tied to
16:19
they're not equivalent to but they're
16:22
tied to these motivational circuits in
16:23
our brain that are trying to keep us
16:25
alive, right? And so um often when
16:28
people have a traumatic event, they feel
16:32
an exist existential threat and they're
16:34
often arousing or stressful. And there's
16:37
chemicals in our brain that are released
16:40
during these experiences.
16:42
Noradrenaline's one. Um cortisol is a
16:43
stress hormone. There's gobs of hormones
16:47
that are released during stress. Uh, but
16:48
there's also exciting kind of more
16:51
positive experiences like that kind of
16:53
moment when you're going to get your
16:55
first kiss or something like that and
16:58
that's associated with dopamine release
16:59
in the brain. There's all sorts of
17:01
chemicals like this. They promote
17:02
plasticity. They allow new memories to
17:04
be locked in much more effectively,
17:08
right? So, that's why these traumatic
17:10
memories tend to stick with us often.
17:13
Um, but what's interesting about it is
17:16
we've studied some stressful memories
17:19
and some emotionally significant
17:21
memories, not in ways that are remotely
17:23
like something that a trauma
17:25
survivor really experiences. But what we
17:28
find even with those is there's a
17:31
difference between the brain systems
17:34
that actually um are involved in giving
17:36
you the details of what happened and the
17:40
brain systems that actually just rev you
17:42
up and give you the visceral feeling of
17:45
the experience, right? So let's say you
17:47
got into a car accident. Later on you
17:50
remember the car accident. Well, there's
17:51
the details of what happened, right?
17:53
like this person ran a stop sign and
17:55
they crashed right into me and they're
17:57
driving like a red car. Um, and then
17:59
there's the feeling the feeling of
18:02
imminent danger, the feeling of pain
18:04
when you got hit and you you jerked
18:06
forward or something, right? And it
18:09
turns out that those are different, but
18:11
the thing that makes people feel like
18:14
it's a photographic memory or they can
18:16
experience it like in the moment is not
18:18
the details. It's really the emotion
18:21
that's associated with it. And so that's
18:24
a key thing that makes traumatic
18:25
memories different. And this brings me
18:27
to another point that I I like to bring
18:29
up to people who tell me, you know, can
18:31
I can you help me forget this
18:33
experience? You want to be able to
18:35
remember them without that emotional
18:37
punch in the face. Lots of people who do
18:40
survive traumas can do that. Um the
18:43
brain has natural ways. Matt Walker says
18:46
that it happens during sleep. And I
18:49
think that is a part of it that the
18:52
brain changes these memories to become
18:54
more useful to us and less toxic to us
18:57
later on, less radioactive.
19:01
But when it doesn't happen, that's when
19:04
really enjoyed the bits in the book
19:10
about music and the unique power it has.
19:11
And and I thought I thought it was
19:15
fascinating when you were talking about
19:17
the study you worked on, I think when
19:20
you were uh just a you know a baby grad
19:23
student. Um and and you you expected
19:26
that having subjects listen to sad music
19:29
would make it easier for them to
19:33
remember sad events in their lives and
19:35
and that remembering sad events would
19:38
make them sad. But why does listening to
19:40
sad music make us remember sad events
19:42
and does the dynamic also work in the
19:46
opposite direction? I think this is a
19:48
very important point is that our
19:50
episodic memories are rooted to a place
19:51
in time and part of what makes a unique
19:55
time in our lives, a unique moment in
19:59
time significant is uh the feelings that
20:02
we have in the time. You might be
20:06
remembering something like, you know,
20:08
your high school graduation and there's
20:10
the content of that memory, but then
20:12
there's also the feelings that you had
20:15
at that moment. And that those feelings
20:17
are part of what we call the context.
20:20
And so if you imagine episodic memories,
20:22
if they were books in a library, you
20:25
would be sorting those books not
20:28
according to the content, but really to
20:30
And that as I said the emotions are part
20:34
of that context. And so if in the moment
20:37
you are in a particular emotional state
20:41
it makes it's almost like as if you're
20:44
looking at the section of the library
20:46
that has information relevant to that
20:49
context. And so uh that's why music can
20:52
be such a powerful vehicle. And it's not
20:55
only the emotional part. It also can be
20:57
because you listen to particular kinds
21:00
of music during particular times in your
21:02
>> Yeah, that's it's such a unique trigger
21:05
in that way. I think you I mean you talk
21:08
in the book about, you know, if you hear
21:09
a couple of chords of born in the USA,
21:12
it reminds you of some of the racist
21:15
you would hear when you were in
21:17
like junior high or high school. And you
21:20
know, it it made me think if I hear the
21:23
the Rolling Stone song Wild Horses, it
21:25
takes me right back to when my mom died
21:28
in 2020. I listen to that song over and
21:30
over again uh when she passed away
21:32
because it reminded me of her. It was
21:35
her favorite song. And for the rest of
21:37
my life, if that song comes on, I am
21:38
right back there when that happened. I
21:41
mean, it's just I just there's nothing
21:43
else that quite does that in that way. I
21:45
think part of it is the emotional pull
21:49
and part of it is the uniqueness of
21:51
particular kinds of music or pieces of
21:54
music to particular kinds of
21:56
relationships we have or times in our
21:59
life. Who we are is constantly changing,
22:01
right? And music is often tied to our
22:04
sense of who we are that it's like we
22:08
choose particular times of music based
22:10
on who we are at a particular time in
22:12
our life. And so music is this beautiful
22:13
vehicle to access those memories of who
22:16
we were. And that's part of I think why
22:20
there's this nostalgia that's associated
22:24
with music is because it really takes us
22:26
back not only to the memories of what
22:28
happened, but the feeling of what we
22:31
were like when we were at that point in
22:33
>> Support for the show comes from Bombas.
22:37
You know those songs that make you just
22:39
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24:48
I wanted to ask you um about the role of
24:58
memory in shaping our identities, our
25:02
our sense of self. And you talk about
25:05
how our life narrative is really this
25:07
thing stitched together through memory
25:11
and our social interactions and the
25:14
stories we tell about who we are and
25:18
what we are. My question is why do we
25:22
need these stories in the first place? I
25:25
mean is the self or whatever we call the
25:28
self just a memory system holding a
25:31
>> I in some ways yes I think so. In fact
25:37
there are people who talk in my field
25:40
about the self-memory system. Uh, I in
25:43
the book, if there's one thing I'm
25:47
guilty of is avoiding some of the hard
25:49
questions, questions about consciousness
25:52
>> Yeah, that was just a little bit of a
25:56
copout. I totally admit that. Um, but I
25:58
think you're on to something and I think
26:01
that it's like uh we have so I talk in
26:03
the book about schemas as a very
26:07
powerful way in which we can learn. So
26:09
schemas for instance could be something
26:12
as simple as I know what happens during
26:14
a basketball game. I know what happens
26:16
during a wedding. So these particular
26:18
kinds of events we have blueprints in
26:20
our head about things that are almost
26:22
certain to happen, things that could
26:25
happen and things that won't happen,
26:27
right? And that helps us orient
26:30
ourselves towards the unique aspects of
26:33
what um you're trying to remember at any
26:35
given time. uh but we also have those
26:38
ideas about oursel called a self schema.
26:40
And I think this is important because a
26:44
big part of imagination and planning is
26:46
understanding a little bit about who we
26:51
are and why we do things. We don't just
26:53
remember the past in terms of like
26:57
regurgitating a bunch of details. When
26:59
we're really remembering events, we
27:01
stitch it into causes and effects. And
27:04
that's really important because if
27:07
something is not a cause or an effect,
27:09
it's kind of window dressing, right? And
27:12
so we don't remember that somebody was
27:15
like, you know, left the room, but we
27:19
remember they left a room because they
27:22
were angry at us or because they were in
27:24
they just got interrupted by an
27:27
emergency phone call. And I think our
27:29
sense of who we are gives us a way of
27:32
organizing our past and organizing
27:36
things into causes and effects, too.
27:39
>> This is more of a philosophical question
27:41
than a scientific one, but this is the
27:44
show, so I'm going to ask anyway. Um,
27:48
if someone loses their memories,
27:52
if they cannot remember their life,
27:55
can they still be themselves? Can they
27:58
be the same self they were?
28:00
>> There's a uh there's a person named Stan
28:04
Klene at at UC Santa Barbara who asked
28:08
this very question and he makes a strong
28:10
case. I tend to think of philosophy as
28:12
above my pay grade.
28:14
There's a, you know, I tend to invert
28:17
the usual like kind of tech bro view of
28:19
the world and I kind of think of math
28:22
and physics as easy fields because
28:23
there's an answer and psychology is a
28:25
much more of a hard science because
28:27
there's not really clear answers and
28:29
philosophy is like where you get into
28:31
>> We just have to sound like we know what
28:34
we're talking about. You you people, the
28:36
scientists actually have to know what
28:38
>> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I think it's like
28:40
the real experts will say, "I don't
28:41
know." Um, and I don't know, but uh, uh,
28:43
Stan has studied people with very, very
28:46
dense amnesia and has made a good case
28:48
that these people still have a sense of
28:51
>> But here's the thing. So there there's
28:55
not cases literally of people losing
28:57
every memory of what they've
29:00
experienced. But there are people, for
29:02
instance, like a patient named Casey
29:04
that Endel Tolving studied. He's he's a
29:06
really f he came up with the concept of
29:08
episodic memory. And the claim was he
29:10
could look all the way back in the past
29:13
and he still didn't have that ability to
29:14
mentally time travel, right? And there's
29:16
a little bit of an emptiness to them, a
29:19
little bit of a flatness. They're in the
29:22
moment, but there's not a sense of what
29:23
they could do or what they could be
29:27
because they don't have these episodic
29:31
memories to draw upon to give them like
29:33
kind of more of a flavor of who they
29:36
are. Um, and I think that's really
29:39
important because and like I said, our
29:42
sense of self normally is constantly
29:44
changing as we keep acquiring episodic
29:47
>> But people who have amnesia, even if
29:51
it's like something more like the
29:54
typical kind of amnesia is you have a
29:56
stroke or something and you're
29:58
unconscious for a while. when you come
30:00
to you lose memories for something. You
30:02
lose your ability to form new memories
30:05
and you might lose memories going back
30:06
10 years but you still remember your
30:08
childhood. And what happens is these
30:10
patients who have severe amnesia
30:12
will get stuck in time. You know,
30:15
they'll look in the mirror and they'll
30:18
say, "Oh my gosh, who is this person?"
30:19
But to them, it's like they're still
30:22
they still feel like they were the
30:24
person they were, you know, 20 years
30:26
ago, 30 years ago. And in some cases, I
30:28
think that's why people with severe
30:31
Alzheimer's, you sense that they're
30:33
regressing as they kind of like lose
30:35
that ability to go back to that
30:38
wellspring of episodic memories. So I
30:40
think yeah, we have a capability of
30:42
being having a self, but that self
30:44
becomes much emptier and thinner as you
30:46
>> Can we say that political movements in
30:52
some sense are doing the same thing just
30:55
at another level. Are they stitching
31:00
collective memory into a collective
31:04
identity? 100% 100%. Uh this idea of
31:07
collective memory uh is uh still one
31:12
that we're is it's still a developing
31:15
concept in our field. A lot of the work
31:18
that's been done in collective memory is
31:20
actually done in the fields of history
31:22
and sociology. But it's a very relevant
31:24
concept. I mean just as an example
31:27
>> how would you define that if you don't
31:29
mind me asking just
31:30
>> absolutely I mean you can define it very
31:32
broadly which is a shared memory that a
31:33
memory that's shared amongst multiple
31:36
people if you have close family members
31:38
you probably have a collective memory of
31:40
the family and that gives you a sense of
31:42
your familial identity uh because you
31:45
all have this shared story right and
31:48
your experience might be different than
31:51
the experience of your parents or
31:52
siblings but once you share those
31:54
experiences with each other. It's no
31:56
longer your memory. Uh just the act of
31:58
expressing that memory in a way that
32:02
someone else can understand it changes
32:04
the memory for you. And then now the
32:05
other person has a memory for something
32:08
they've never experienced before because
32:10
you've told them about it. And so as
32:12
these memories go get passed back and
32:15
forth, they're constantly modified,
32:18
right? And I think this is key to what
32:20
makes humans so successful in the world
32:22
is that we can build memories and
32:25
benefit from other people's experiences
32:28
and and you know wisdom. But it creates
32:31
huge problems because memory can be
32:34
selective and memory can be you know so
32:36
it can be highly incomplete and it can
32:39
also be inaccurate many times. Right.
32:42
>> sometimes intentionally. So
32:46
>> sometimes intentionally. Exactly. So if
32:47
you want to form an authoritarian
32:49
regime, the first thing you do is you
32:52
seize collective memory. You take down
32:55
statues. You start to regulate, you
32:58
know, the teaching of history in
33:02
schools. You remove references in
33:03
historical archives, right? Almost any
33:07
authoritarian regime. This is part of
33:10
the playbook. And uh and I think it's a
33:13
powerful one because once you start to
33:16
shape that narrative, just like people
33:19
have narratives of I'm terrible at math
33:21
or I'm like a failure in life and those
33:24
are often rooted in a particular
33:27
interpretation of your past. If you can
33:29
enforce most people to have a particular
33:32
view of their nation's past, that's
33:35
going to shape their sense of what it
33:37
means to be a member of that nation or
33:39
The uh relationship between individual
33:42
memory and collective memory or between
33:46
individual identity and collective
33:48
identity is so fascinating to me. I how
33:50
much of our sense of self is determined
33:55
or or shaped by our social
33:58
or tribal affiliations. I imagine the
34:03
relationship here is pretty damn
34:06
complicated, but there has to be a
34:07
relationship there.
34:11
>> There's absolutely a relationship and
34:12
it's a two-way relationship.
34:14
>> So, a lot of the research shows that on
34:16
the one hand, you develop your sense of
34:19
of uh tribal affiliations
34:23
or familial relationships through these
34:26
kind of collective memories that you
34:30
have. but also you're able to connect
34:31
with other people if you have shared
34:35
collective memories and you view those
34:37
memories in a similar light. And so what
34:40
I mean by that is, you know, if you're
34:42
in England and you support say the
34:43
Tottenham Spurs or something like that,
34:46
you can meet someone anywhere and once
34:48
you start talking about the same game,
34:51
they will become friends, right? Uh here
34:53
in the US it would be like an American
34:56
football team or a baseball team, same
34:58
thing, right? or let's say you're both
35:00
you both have similar political views
35:02
and you both like uh saw the same debate
35:05
or something like that. Just sharing
35:08
those collective memories can make you
35:10
feel more connected with that person.
35:12
>> Oh, I I grew up in the in the South.
35:15
That's where I am now. And you know,
35:17
like college football is sort of our
35:19
thing. It's a religion.
35:21
>> But it is people who who
35:22
>> didn't grow up in that don't quite
35:25
understand it at this level. what kind
35:27
of cultural shared cultural language it
35:30
is. I mean, it is it is that shared
35:33
memory really is you meet someone, they
35:36
got on an LSU Tigers shirt and before
35:39
you know it, you're having a
35:40
conversation about, oh no, I went there
35:41
when I was five. the Auburn game. Could
35:42
you believe, you know, I mean, it was
35:44
>> it it it has this way of of stitching
35:45
together a history and a community in a
35:47
way that that very few things can, but
35:50
>> it is that that shared cultural language
35:54
and history that's like the container
35:56
for the community really.
35:58
>> Yeah. It's beautiful in many ways and
36:00
it's toxic in many ways, right? It's
36:03
>> that's where I was going next.
36:06
>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's both because
36:07
you see someone else with an LSU Tigers
36:09
thing shirt and now you feel like you've
36:11
got a bond with them and that's a really
36:15
good thing. But then you're both
36:16
watching an LSU Tigers game and you talk
36:18
to each other and you'll remember the
36:21
game based on your love for the LSU
36:23
Tigers and you'll go, "Yeah, the ref
36:26
totally blew that call." And you might
36:29
forget a really good play that was made
36:31
by the other team. and the other person
36:33
reinforces that story and you build a
36:35
collective memory that's more selective
36:37
and more distorted than it would be had
36:41
you never talked to each other. And
36:43
that's the downside of collective memory
36:45
is if we're not careful, if we don't
36:47
surround ourselves by a lot of checks
36:49
and balances, what happens is we can
36:51
develop very impoverished and inaccurate
36:54
collective memories and we're very
36:58
susceptible to misinformation because we
36:59
like misinformation if it comes in a
37:02
flavor that we already like and we're
37:04
much more likely to take it in and
37:07
>> Yeah. Now, this is something
37:10
This is the challenge or one of the
37:15
challenge uh that comes from the fact
37:16
that memory it itself is so constructed
37:19
and slippery in this way. I mean you
37:23
even in the book you you talk a bit
37:24
about how as we grow more segregated
37:26
politically, culturally,
37:31
we end up with just totally different
37:34
>> of the same events
37:37
>> and therefore different realities.
37:38
>> And if if memory is reconstructive in in
37:41
in the ways you're talking about and we
37:44
are moving more and more into a world
37:47
that's segregatedformationally.
37:50
Does that seem like a massive massive
37:53
political problem to you? I mean, I've
37:56
argued that it's just straight up
37:58
unsustainable, but it's also possible
38:00
that I'm being dramatic. Uh, so I put it
38:02
to you. I think this is one of the
38:05
biggest threats we have in the present
38:07
day and one of the biggest dangers that
38:09
I foresee as you know technologies like
38:12
AI become more and more powerful is you
38:15
know and maybe I'm I'm looking at this
38:18
from too much of a personal lens and too
38:21
much of a you know often we kind of look
38:23
at things like now is somehow special
38:25
right but I do feel like I've never
38:28
lived in a time where it's so easy for
38:30
people to just believe what makes them
38:34
happy, right? We used to all have shared
38:37
news sources and shared sources of
38:41
information and expertise that, you
38:44
know, they could tell us things that we
38:47
didn't like, like smoking is unhealthy.
38:48
And even if we didn't like that, we sort
38:51
of had to believe it because we were
38:54
all, you know, because we had news
38:56
sources that fact checked and we had
38:59
like uh uh experts who we trusted and
39:01
experts aren't always right, you know,
39:06
and news sources are definitely not
39:08
always right. And you know, news can be
39:09
a selective win uh lens on on collective
39:11
memory. But now we have so many uh
39:14
sources of information and the uh thing
39:19
that I of you know I've done a lot of
39:23
podcasts now and it's been a fascinating
39:25
experience for me because I hear you
39:27
know I remember going on one podcast and
39:29
and the person was talking about the
39:31
legacy media is dead and and they're
39:33
trying to go after podcasters because
39:36
podcasters are telling it like it is and
39:38
giving people these long form things.
39:40
And the idea is somehow if we hear
39:42
somebody talking for an hour and we just
39:44
let them say whatever they want that
39:46
eventually people will figure out the
39:49
truth, right? But that's not really how
39:51
it works. What happens is people pick
39:53
and choose what they will remember from
39:55
all of the podcasts they've listened to
39:58
>> based on what they believe. That's how
40:00
they're going to form that memory for
40:04
all those things that they've been
40:05
exposed to. And the more we allow
40:07
misinformation to thrive,
40:10
the more it likely it is that people can
40:13
just pick and choose what they get in a
40:17
way that makes them feel good. I brought
40:21
up this idea of causes as being really
40:23
important, causes and effects. And so we
40:26
often will decide about facts and we'll
40:29
make decisions about things in the world
40:34
based on our understanding of causes and
40:36
effects. But the way our brains do it is
40:38
kind of like making the best of bad
40:42
information. So for instance, it's like
40:45
if I were to hear about somebody who
40:47
gets a shot and they, you know, gets a
40:52
vaccination and they developed a severe
40:55
allergic reaction to it and they go into
40:58
aniflaxis, I will be more likely to
41:00
think that that per that vaccine causes
41:03
problems and is dangerous.
41:07
But I'm not hearing the stories about a
41:10
bunch of people who took the vaccine and
41:12
didn't get sick. I'm not hearing them
41:14
and because that's not an event. That's
41:17
not something that you can form a memory
41:19
for. It's something that didn't happen.
41:21
You know, hearing a statistic that you
41:22
know nine out of 10 people who took the
41:24
shot didn't get CO or whatever. That's
41:26
not really going to produce a vivid
41:29
memory that's going to influence you
41:31
nearly as much as this vivid memory of
41:33
somebody you even if it wasn't you just
41:35
somebody telling a story about this.
41:38
>> Do we understand how malleable
41:40
collective memory is? Is this something
41:43
that can evolve pretty quickly? If I can
41:45
tell myself a new story about myself
41:47
that transforms how I
41:50
>> experience the world or think about the
41:52
world and if you can do that as an
41:55
can a country do that? Can a community
41:59
Everything we know about collective
42:03
memory, which is not a lot, but
42:05
everything we know has really pointed to
42:08
the idea that collective memory just
42:11
magnifies the strengths and the
42:14
weaknesses of individual memory. And so
42:16
what I mean by that is we know that I
42:19
can give people misinformation after an
42:21
event has occurred. So you you know
42:24
Elizabeth Loftess did some really
42:26
beautiful work on this um where she
42:28
would show you know a slideshow of this
42:30
car accident and then the car accident
42:33
like somebody might have run through
42:36
like a stop sign and she'll say how fast
42:38
was it going when it passed the yield
42:41
sign and later on people might be more
42:42
likely to remember that there was a
42:45
yield sign there instead of a stop sign.
42:47
Right? Those are effects that you can
42:48
find in the lab for fairly mundane kind
42:51
of pieces of information. But now you're
42:53
in a group of people and you're
42:56
remembering that and one person
42:57
remembers something wrong, especially if
42:58
that person has kind of a position of
43:01
status. They're a little bit higher
43:03
status and they talk more. Um, which we
43:06
can all think of what kinds of groups
43:09
tend to do this, right? You know,
43:10
mansplating things and so forth. um
43:12
those people will have an undue
43:16
influence on how people remember the
43:18
event later on and that misinformation
43:20
can really thrive like a I mean they
43:22
talk about it as a social contagion
43:25
because it spreads like a virus. Um so
43:27
that selectivity and that malleability
43:30
of memory that we have as individuals
43:33
even fairly mundane experiences tends to
43:35
just magnify in groups. Uh but of course
43:38
you also have the power of belief and
43:41
the beliefs are this kind of filter that
43:44
affects what kind of memories we can
43:47
pull up and what kind of memories we
43:49
>> what's the causal direction here right I
43:51
mean do we do we have memories and then
43:54
we form beliefs on the basis of those
43:57
memories or do we choose
44:00
beliefs and then selectively arrange our
44:03
memories so as to uh validate those
44:05
that is that it's like we build our
44:13
beliefs based on partly uh we build our
44:15
beliefs based on memories for things
44:19
>> but I think also based on things that
44:22
we've done um there's a literature on
44:24
what's called cognitive dissonance
44:27
that's very old and in in the cognitive
44:28
dissonance studies they used to have
44:31
people write essays on things that they
44:33
didn't actually believe that went
44:36
against their beliefs
44:37
And then later on they would their
44:39
beliefs would change to accommodate what
44:41
they did. It's kind of like the tail
44:44
wagging the dog, right?
44:45
>> Um and so that memory for what we've
44:47
done and what we've heard of off or you
44:51
know what loved ones, people we like and
44:54
care about have done will often have a
44:56
pull on what we believe later on. But of
44:59
course what we believe will affect the
45:01
kinds of memories we can access and the
45:04
way we remember them. Right? So uh just
45:07
as the simplest level people tend to
45:10
remember positive events more from their
45:12
lives than negative events. But more
45:15
importantly when they reconstruct them
45:17
they tend to remember them more
45:19
positively and they tend to remember
45:21
themselves more positively. Um, and that
45:22
can be good in some ways, but it can
45:26
also mean that you tend to think that
45:27
you're better than you really are,
45:29
right? And so now you magnify that to
45:31
your social group and you pull up
45:33
collective memories about, you know, the
45:35
past based on your beliefs. And then you
45:37
and then you construct a narrative out
45:41
of it. And maybe that narrative is that
45:42
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47:02
Do we sometimes have to forget, let go
47:07
of memories in order to forgive and move
47:10
on, or is there another way to do that?
47:14
I'm really asking about this at both the
47:16
>> and the social level, you know, we're
47:18
talking about politics and and tribal
47:20
identities and shared memories. Do you
47:23
think even at the level of society that
47:25
we need to forget in order to move
47:29
forward or is the price of that kind of
47:31
amnesia too high? And I'm thinking of
47:32
>> you know, truth and reconciliation. Yes.
47:36
>> Commissions, right? Or even the battles
47:38
we have in this country uh over our
47:40
history. I mean, I've always believed
47:42
that we have to confront the truth of
47:44
our past uh before we can move beyond
47:47
it. But I guess I I can also understand
47:49
how someone might say, well, you know,
47:51
if we're constantly litigating the past
47:54
and re-remembering the past, we'll be
47:56
stuck there forever.
47:58
>> Yeah. And I I think the answer is
48:00
somewhere in between based on what we
48:03
know right now. And again, these are
48:05
there's serious limits to what we know.
48:06
But um I had a whole section in my book
48:08
that I wrote at one point on truth and
48:11
reconciliation uh uh um and restorative
48:13
justice and memory. And uh I had to
48:17
delete it because like my editor said,
48:21
this is just too controversial and uh
48:23
really not necessarily substantive
48:26
enough. And I think they were right that
48:28
the substance was a little bit low in
48:29
terms of the science. Um but um it's a
48:31
very controversial topic. Um you can
48:34
look at South Africa as a great example
48:36
of this. Um where these and this comes
48:38
back to what we talked about before with
48:43
trauma and this idea that you don't want
48:44
to forget but you want to remember it in
48:47
a way that's not radioactive. And uh so
48:49
a friend of mine named uh um uh Filipe
48:52
Dragard at Duke is doing this beautiful
48:56
beautiful project called the memory and
48:59
forgiveness project. And he's both a
49:01
philosopher and a cognitive
49:03
neuroscientist. And so he grew up in
49:04
Colombia and uh uh the time he grew up
49:07
in was just really tumultuous. There
49:11
were all these paramilitary groups and
49:13
government and uh um government uh um
49:15
crackdowns and uh uh insurgencies and so
49:19
forth and just many many many people
49:23
were killed. man traum the whole country
49:26
is still traumatized from this you know
49:29
um he has experiences of you know
49:31
harrowing you know things you know he
49:34
had a pretty privileged life compared to
49:36
a lot of people but just all sorts of
49:37
harrowing memories from so what he did
49:39
was he decided to bring in people into
49:42
communities and actually teach them
49:46
about memory and forgiveness and not
49:47
tell them you have to forgive people but
49:49
just give them the information and see
49:52
what they do with it and so the jury's
49:54
out. We don't know. Um, but what I love
49:56
from this is he has this quote from
50:00
somebody named Celia Cruz and the quote
50:02
is forgiving is not forgetting.
50:04
Forgiving is remembering without pain. M
50:07
>> and I think this is crucial because
50:10
often you have experiences like the
50:12
truth commission in South Africa and I
50:14
think where they went where it might
50:17
have been really making things worse for
50:19
people or at least that's what some
50:23
people have reported is they often felt
50:24
like it was just regurgitating the past
50:28
but not processing it. And people can
50:31
find this in psychotherapy too where you
50:34
you can have therapists who just dig and
50:37
dig and dig for trauma, but they don't
50:40
do much to kind of actually the the
50:44
assumption is always the truth will set
50:46
you free and if you remember something
50:48
that's traumatic somehow you'll just be
50:50
free of the psychopathology and that's
50:53
not at all true. I mean we like we've
50:55
talked about remembering something
50:58
horrible makes you feel horrible, right?
51:00
So unless you work to change the way you
51:02
think about the past, it's going to be
51:05
just kind of like retraumatizing people
51:08
over and over again. And I think that's
51:11
where forgiveness comes in is
51:13
forgiveness is changing the way you look
51:14
at the past. Not changing the memories
51:17
of what happened per se, but changing
51:20
your relationship with them.
51:22
What about self forgiveness
51:24
is stuck in the past or or cannot help
51:31
but ruminate over what they did wrong,
51:35
what they could have done, mistakes that
51:38
were made, etc., and and and
51:40
can't forgive themselves and sort of
51:44
move on. What do you think about that?
51:46
Do you have advice for people who are
51:48
stuck in that way? Well, I mean, I look
51:51
at I I I'm one of those people, so it's
51:54
really hard for me to give advice in the
51:56
sense of like telling people confidently
51:59
this is what you do. But
52:01
if we think of memory as this resource
52:05
as opposed to this repository of
52:08
absolute facts, right?
52:11
>> Then you can take the same information
52:13
from the past and make it useful or make
52:16
it, you know, counterproductive, right?
52:18
I mean, the past is literally over. It
52:21
does not exist anymore. At least, you
52:24
know, I mean, aside from physicists
52:26
telling you something about quantum
52:27
mechanics, you know, the past doesn't
52:28
exist anymore. Therefore, it's almost
52:30
like as if it's not real. All we're
52:33
living in is the present moment. So, to
52:36
the extent that we have this ability to
52:39
call on the past, the question is what
52:41
do we do with that? Right? If we see
52:43
that past as being something that's an
52:46
absolute marker of who we are and what
52:48
we're capable of, that's not going to be
52:51
productive. But you can look at the past
52:55
in a different way, right? I mean, I
52:57
talk about in the book just at a very
52:59
minor level that giving you yourself the
53:01
opportunity to make mistakes is the most
53:04
powerful way to learn, right? And self
53:06
forgiveness in some ways is really about
53:09
seeing the things that you've done that
53:13
were theoretically wrong and learning
53:15
from them. And so like yeah, you can
53:17
always look at mistakes you've made and
53:21
see them as learning experiences as part
53:23
of what it takes to, you know, learn and
53:26
grow. Or you can see them as, you know,
53:30
markers of how bad you are and how
53:33
incompetent you are. And obviously one's
53:35
more productive than the other.
53:37
>> I'm still beating myself up for stupid
53:39
I did in junior high. So
53:42
>> yeah, junior high lost cause.
53:44
>> Yeah, middle school for me was like
53:46
being in a state prison. So I definitely
53:48
>> Um, is there anything else
53:52
you want to say or any advice you want
53:56
to offer to anyone listening before we
53:58
ride off into the sunset? The point that
54:00
I really want people to get and I have
54:02
to hammer this home over and over again
54:05
is memor is not free. Memor is not easy
54:06
and memor is not absolute. And so the
54:10
first thing you have to do is set an
54:13
intention to what really is important
54:16
for you to remember. Whether it's going
54:19
on a family trip and you know deciding
54:21
do I want to take movies all the time or
54:24
do I want to be there and experience it
54:26
or being at a party and trying to
54:28
memorize people's names. It's all, you
54:30
know, the same kind of thing, which is
54:32
that your intention
54:34
will change what you remember and how
54:36
you remember it for the better.
54:39
>> Once again, the book is called Why We
54:40
Remember. It's fantastic, as was this
54:43
conversation. Thank you.
54:45
>> Thanks a lot for having me. It's been a
54:47