Improving Memory Collection

Summary

The Nightly – "Improving Memory Collection"

Podcast: The Nightly, by Hatch Podcasts
Episode Date: August 11, 2026
Hosts: Matt Bragg and Greta Johnsen (this episode: Greta Johnsen)
Special Guest: Cami from Tucson, AZ

Episode Overview

This episode of The Nightly delves into the art and science of memory: how we form, preserve, and retrieve memories, and the little tricks we use—or could use—to improve our recall. Host Greta Johnsen converses with listener Cami, exploring memory from the personal to the scientific, touching on practical tips, sensory triggers, and the deeply subjective nature of remembering.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Everyday Role of Memory

• Greta opens with musings on memory’s volatility, referencing the minor frustrations of forgetting keys or wallets.
• Cami, calling in from Tucson, reflects on how certain memories strengthen while others fade as she moves further into adulthood (03:03).
• Both ponder how learning new things—like a language—might edge out old information, likening it to a trade-off:

  “Every time I remembered a French word, I lost an English word.” —Greta [03:24]

2. Sleep and Memory Retention

• Cami shares that she and her household have embraced naps as a tool for memory enhancement, inspired by reading about sleep’s impact on memory (04:35).
• Greta expresses surprise at how even a short nap can help with retention, expecting only deep sleep to make a difference (05:51).
• Cami explains the role of different sleep phases:

  “Deep sleep helps with more declarative memories—facts, names, vocab. And then REM sleep apparently consolidates your non-declarative memories—like motor skills or creative insights.” —Cami [06:02]

3. The Power of Sensory Memory

• The conversation turns to how senses, particularly smell and sound, serve as powerful memory triggers:
  • Smell:
    Cami reminisces about her nana's soap and how the scent instantly transports her back to childhood (07:10).
    Greta adds her own visceral laundry room scent memory, noting how smells “catch me off guard, stop me in my tracks” (08:44).
  • Sound:
    Cami uses music as an anchor, saying:

    “Anytime we hear something—even just the first few beats of that song—whoever’s next to me, if they happen to be at that show, I go, ‘Hey, seen this live. Don’t forget.’” —Cami [09:10]

4. Memory Distortion and the 'Retelling' Effect

• Greta references research noting that:

  “Apparently, the more you reference a memory, the harder it is to retain the memory.” —Greta [10:02]

• Cami agrees, expanding on how each retelling risks subtly altering the memory as we integrate new context or others’ perspectives (10:48).
• They discuss the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, the individual lens each person brings to a shared moment, and the blurry line between memoir and fact.

5. Attention & Presence as Keys to Memory

• Greta notices she often remembers where sentences are on a page (12:05), prompting Cami to explain her facility for spatial recall in daily life—possibly a result of constant engagement with her environments (12:47).
• Greta crystallizes the insight:

  “It’s about attention... being intentional about what you’re paying attention to is such a nice gift you can give yourself.” —Greta [13:41]

• Cami offers practical advice rooted in her wedding experience:

  “Stop and pause and take everything in as often as I could remember to. That way, the likelihood of me actually capturing a few real strong memories that day was much higher.” —Cami [15:18]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On language ‘trade-offs’:
  “I kept remembering like, oh, that's the word for cash register. But I did feel like every time I remembered a French word, I lost an English word.”
  —Greta [03:24]

• On sleep and memory types:
  “Deep sleep helps with like more declarative memories, facts, names, you know, vocab. And then REM sleep apparently consolidates your non declarative memories... motor skills or creative insights, emotional processing.”
  —Cami [06:02]

• On scent’s power:
  “If I smell that soap anywhere, I swear I can... capture just a glimpse of being in that sink or right in that spot in her home.”
  —Cami [07:35]

• On reliving concert moments:
  “Anytime we hear something, even just the first few beats of that song... I go, ‘Hey, seen this live, don’t forget.’ And you can kind of just transport yourself back into that space.”
  —Cami [09:10]

• On memory alteration:
  “The more a memory is accessed, the more likely it is that you're taking other context and possibly editing it, so to say.”
  —Cami [10:02]

• On the importance of attention:
  “Being intentional about what you're paying attention to is such a nice, like, gift you can give yourself.”
  —Greta [13:41]

• Advice for big moments:
  “Stop and pause and take everything in... the likelihood of me actually capturing a few real strong memories that day was much higher.”
  —Cami [15:18]

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Important Timestamps

• [02:28] — Cami introduces her fascination with memory and capturing moments.
• [04:35] — Discussion of naps and sleep phases for memory retention.
• [07:01] — Smell as a memory trigger; personal childhood stories.
• [09:00] — Music as an anchor for emotional and event recall.
• [10:02] — Potential downsides of repeatedly accessing a memory.
• [13:41] — Discussion on attention, being present, and memory formation.
• [15:18] — Cami’s strategy for remembering her wedding day: intentional pausing.

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Final Thoughts

The episode concludes on the theme of intentionality—being present to form richer memories, savoring life’s big and small moments, and accepting the subjectivity and fluidity of memory. Cami signs off by wishing goodnight to all listeners, emphasizing a sense of connection.

“I am a big fan of believing that we're all connected in this world, in this life experience. So I'd like to say goodnight to everyone listening.”
—Cami [18:00]

Greta echoes the sentiment, reinforcing the idea of shared experience and community through memory.

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For listener participation, thoughts, or stories, The Nightly invites voice memos and calls to 904-NIGHTLY (904-644-4859) or emails at [e-mail].

Transcript

[A]

Audio for sleep by hatch. Hey, I'm Greta. Welcome to the nightly from Hatch, where your late night thoughts go to rest. Today we are talking about memory, which is kind of a funny one, right? I feel like, you know, now that I'm entering my 40s, it comes and it goes. Like, do I have little GPS trackers on my keys and in my wallet? Absolutely. I would like to think that maybe I'm just like focusing on more important things than keys and wallets, but I don't know even as I'm saying that, like, keys and wallets are both pretty important. So, yeah, today we are getting into memory. But if you want to come on the show to talk about anything that's on your mind, like, I don't know, GPS trackers, you can email us or send a voice memo to the nightlyatch co, or you can text us or leave a voicemail at 9.04nightly. That's 904-6444-4859. I wonder how long it's going to take me to memorize that phone number. All right. With us tonight is Cami. Hey, Cami.

[B]

Hi, Greta.

[A]

Hey, how are you?

[B]

Oh, I'm great. How are you?

[A]

I'm good. Where are you calling from?

[B]

Oh, I call Tucson, Arizona, home.

[A]

Oh, nice. That sounds very warm this time of year.

[B]

Oh, most certainly. But as we like to say here, dry heat, so we survive.

[A]

That does make a big difference. It's so humid these days in Chicago. I just feel like I go outside and I melt.

[B]

Yes. I always thought that living here would give me a little bit of an advantage when I travel elsewhere, but that humidity.

[A]

Yep, yep. It's different. It's just so different. So what's on your mind tonight?

[B]

Oh, that is a great question. I honestly spend a lot of time thinking about memory. So forming memories, preserving memories, how you know, if there's any ways you can lean into tricks within your own body or own practices to help you capture memories and those like really critical or beautiful moments in life, those times that you want to make sure you can tap into later on,

[A]

that's so beautiful. Would you say you have a good memory?

[B]

You know, I've always felt that way. And I've noticed as I've navigated or ventured into the throes of adulthood, my memory for some things gets even stronger, whereas for others it's fading a little bit. Vocab's a great example. Like sometimes you just can't find that word.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. I remember. I guess this was years Ago now, but I went to France with my mom and I had studied French in college. And so I felt like I was like, I kept remembering like, oh, that's the word for cash register. But I did feel like every time I remembered a French word, I lost an English word.

[B]

Oh, that's such an interesting way to think about it. Like a trade off of sorts of. Yeah.

[A]

Well, I have heard, I have heard that people, let's see, how does it go? It's like if you have a really bad memory, that's actually kind of a good thing because it means you're taking in new information more or something. Have you heard that?

[B]

You know, I haven't heard that. That's really fascinating. But it, it makes sense.

[A]

Exactly. I could be wrong about. I am not a memory scientist, but it is so, I mean, our brains are so

[B]

truly so something that we talk about a lot because we are people in my household that have done some learning as adults and like gone back to education, what have you, for professional reasons or just because we're interested in a new topic.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And one thing we've read time and time again is when you're really intent on capturing information and, and holding it to take a quick nap, like a 20 minute nap. And we've, we've gone a little further down that rabbit hole to like understand that there's different phases of sleep that are better for retaining certain types of information versus others. And I think that too is just incredibly fascinating. Like again, what are those kind of tricks? I, I know for myself, like smell is a really strong way to take me back somewhere. But using sleep as a tool.

[A]

Sleep is a huge tool. I mean, I'm sure you're familiar too with studies around like actual cognitive impairment if you aren't sleeping enough, you know, like, it's so important for so many different, like hormones and all kinds of stuff. But yeah, memory is a huge one for that.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. I was, you know, as I was kind of thinking through the sleep factor, it felt like we're all pretty well familiar with the risks and the issues that come along with lack of sleep. But flipping that dialogue and kind of figuring out how we can again use sleep as a tool, I was like, hmm, that feels like a new zone that more people should consider.

[A]

I like that. I'm kind of surprised to hear that a nap can help with memory retention. I would have guessed that you needed like deeper sleep for that.

[B]

Right, right. And again, I think that kind of goes back to that. Different phases for different things. I, I, I Poked at it just a little bit. And like the difference between deep sleep helps with like more declarative memories, facts, names, you know, vocab. And then REM sleep apparently consolidates your non declarative memories more like motor skills or creative insights, emotional processing. And I, I think that's a really interesting differentiation.

[A]

That is so interesting. Oh I'm going to think about that a lot. That's pretty cool.

[B]

Yeah. I feel like it's the new facet of my, my memory interest personally.

[A]

That's some cool nerdery for sure. I think it's really interesting that you mentioned smell because I do remember recently hearing about studies that show smell can help Alzheimer's patients remember things.

[B]

Oh that's lovely.

[A]

Which is beautiful and I think it is. I mean it can be so profound, can't it? The smell of something.

[B]

No, truly. So one, that one that always catches me off guard. My, my nana used a very particular soap in her kitchen when we were kids and she always bathed us in the sink and I doubt I have. I don't even want to say I doubt it because what if I do right. But like if I smell that, that soap anywhere.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I swear I can. I capture just a glimpse of being in that sink or right in, in that spot in her home.

[A]

Oh that's so sweet. I love that I have one kind of like that. It's with my grandparents house too actually in California there was something about their laundry room and I don't know that it was even the detergent. I don't think it was. But it has been a real pleasure for me recently because I've realized that the laundry room in it's like my boyfriend's family lake house in northern Michigan. Their laundry room has the same smell and it's so sweet. And I, yeah it's like I couldn't tell you what it is but there's just something about it that reminds me of being a really little kid and being really excited to be at my grandparents house.

[B]

Yeah. Oh that's so, that's so cool. I love that you found it in such an unexpected place too.

[A]

Totally. I think there is like when that happens there's really nothing like it. Huh.

[B]

But no truly like like I said it catches me off guard, stops me in my tracks. I. I almost can't breathe for a second because you just go oh I

[A]

love that so much. What are some other senses that you found really bring strong memories for you?

[B]

I'm really big into using like utilizing music so big fan of live music, attending Concerts.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

And I make a point of. Anytime we hear something, even just the first few beats of that song, whoever's next to me, if they happen to be at that show with me, I go, hey, seen this live, don't forget.

[A]

Oh, that's beautiful.

[B]

And you can kind of just transport yourself back into that space. I. I think that's. That's where the. The auditory really helps. You know, you close your eyes, and you can picture that feeling and standing there in that moment.

[A]

Totally. Oh, my gosh. I love that. In your memory research, have you heard. Have you heard that? Like, I don't even know how to articulate this. Apparently, the more you reference a memory, the harder it is to retain the memory.

[B]

You know, I. I've not gone very deep into retention, but I. That's wild to me. I have. I have talked with a few friends, a few of my closer friends about the concept that the more a memory is accessed, the more likely it is that you're taking other context and possibly editing it, so to say. Yeah, and I. I think that's really, really interesting because as we. As we go through life, you know, there's a million opportunities for that to happen. You. You hang out with your mom, and she tells you the story from her perspective, or, you know, you see a picture, and then how do we trust those memories at a certain point? Right.

[A]

Yeah. I think there's some really interesting layers to that, and I think it's really interesting to think about in the context of people who write memoirs or who will write something that is memoir. Ish. But then they'll call it creative nonfiction to maybe give themselves a little more license. Because to your point, it's like, yeah, I mean, it's all so deeply subjective, and even that comes with so many layers.

[B]

Right, sure. Absolutely. Or even the fact that, you know, two people standing in the same moment, navigating the same experience together from their own lived experiences could be capturing that memory through a different lens.

[A]

Totally. I mean, you hear about how, like, how different eyewitness reports, like, how flawed that can be in, like, criminal trials and stuff, even. Like, it's all so interesting.

[B]

Yes. Or how many times, you know, are you, again, talking to a friend or a family member? You're like, no, I'm sure it was a blue car we were in. And they're. No, it was green. It's from the smallest, you know, most meaningless things to things with a lot of weight and impact. It's. The ways we rely upon memory are also just endless.

[A]

I feel like one of the very strange things that I have a memory for is so like, I read a lot of books and I can often remember where a sentence is on a page.

[B]

Ooh.

[A]

And, and it's not like, it's not photographic. Like I definitely couldn't tell you all the other words on the page. But like, it's just sort of a general sense of where things were in like, I don't know, I think it's kind of random. It's sometimes useful, I guess, like if I do want to find a specific quote or something, I often can fairly easily. But it has me wondering, like, is there anything that you feel like you are oddly good at remembering?

[B]

You know, very similar to what you just described, but I'd say more in a life general sense. And I, I, my loose theory is it's a matter of relativity. I think we each as individuals have different things that we, through our again, unique lived experience and perspective that we might latch on to. And I, I would venture to imagine you're really engaged with your reading. And I'm somebody that I manage a lot of the spaces that I, I am part of. And I think because of that I'm constantly consuming details about what's around me. And it makes it seem like I know where everything is. I don't know where everything is. I just touch a lot of things. I just look at a lot of things, in my opinion. But it's, I don't, I don't know. It's, it's really interesting, isn't it?

[A]

That is really interesting.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I think what you're saying is it's about attention, right?

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Which I think partly is nice to think about just because in this day and age there are so many things vying for our attention at any given moment. And so like, I don't know, I feel like being intentional about what you're paying attention to is such a nice, like, gift you can give yourself, you know.

[B]

Absolutely. When you've already got my wheels turning. I, I consider myself someone who's very grounded in the present. So maybe there's something to that here.

[A]

Yeah. That is really interesting because yeah. If you were just grounded in the past all the time, that probably, I think initially I'm like, oh, yeah, that would be good for memory, but probably not because you wouldn't be able to remember present stuff.

[B]

Sure. Or folks that are very forward looking, you know, future oriented, they're not necessarily consuming maybe at the same level of detail, their surroundings or what's occurring in that specific moment.

[A]

Yeah, that's a really good point. Do you have any suggestions for people for, like, how to. How to stay present? Like, do you think you're intentional about that?

[B]

You know, quite honestly, I. I think it's. It's much of my natural state. But one of my favorite pieces of advice that I choose to pass along because I'm. I'm kind of picky with. With that practice, I. I got married. I'm actually about ready to celebrate my anniversary this next week. So. I got married about three 13 years ago.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And before the wedding. And it was crazy, because I can't even tell you who recommended this to me, but what. What they advised was that the day was going to be chaos. And their advice was to stop and pause and take everything in as often as I could remember to. And that way, the likelihood of me actually capturing a few real strong memories that day was much higher.

[A]

I love that. That's so nice.

[B]

Yeah. For that event in particular, you're so full of emotion, and there's so much going on around you. All the people. Not all the people you know, but the closest people that you want to be there are going, and you're hosting and you're experiencing. But I think it worked.

[A]

That's so cool. I love that. I actually recently officiated a wedding.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

And it was. It was such a pleasure. It was so much fun. There was a really funny moment. It was as I was giving my little speech, and the microphone cut out. And it was a wireless microphone, which I always don't really trust, but I know there are wireless microphones that do function. But it was interesting, I think, partly because I am a person who's, like, used to microphones and used to things like, going mildly wrong. Like, I didn't panic or anything. I just kind of went with it. And we ended up sort of, like, pausing and waiting for another microphone to come. But it turned out, I think, to your point, being a really nice moment for the bride and the groom to just sort of, like, look around and be there for a minute, you know? And, like, I don't know. I kind of loved that too. Cause it's like, here's this, like, theoretically flawed moment, but it actually, I think, turned out to be a lovely opportunity to just sort of, like, soak it all up, which can be so hard in those moments.

[B]

Oh, absolutely. That's so beautiful.

[A]

It was cool.

[B]

I love that you were the person that got to usher everyone through that moment, because it sounds like you were the exact right person that they needed.

[A]

I was like, should I just yell. I can yell, but I didn't end up having to yell, which was nice.

[B]

Those wireless mics always come with something. I think any of us that plan an outdoor outdoor wedding or one that needs a sound system just knows exactly.

[A]

Well, Cami, I think before I let you go, I would love to ask you to say goodnight to either someone or something this evening.

[B]

Wow. I am a big fan of believing that we're all connected in this world, in this life experience. So I'd like to say goodnight to everyone listening.

[A]

Oh, I feel like that's kind of a cop out, but it's a really beautiful cop out, so I accept.

[B]

Well, it's my best way to not segue us down into the everything happens for a reason, so I'll bow out at that.

[A]

Well, Cami, thank you very much. I hope you have a lovely night of sleep.

[B]

Of course. Thank you, Greta. And I hope the same.

[A]

Well, I just loved that conversation. It kind of made me wish I were actually a memory scientist. Brains are so cool and interesting. If you would like to come on the show to talk about anything that is on your mind, you can email us or send a voice memo to the nightlyatch co. Or you can text us or leave a voicemail at 9044 nightly. That is 904-644-4859. I think I'm just gonna copy Cami tonight and say goodnight to everybody because I do love the idea that we're all connected. And for those of us listening, here we are.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So good night.

[B]

Sa.

[A]

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