How Nate DiMeo's stories from the past connect us to today
Sometimes it's just a thought that can change the course of one's life. As a kid, Memory Palace host and creator Nate DiMeo thought a lot about memory. "I remember thinking about the way that a certain Kenny Rogers song, when I was eight, transported me back to a time when I was five…and that song was on all the time." His inclination for making connections between sound, space and time has led him to his current job description: to explore and share other people's histories through his podcast.
I really am chasing beauty.- Nate DiMeo
Memory Palace makes the listener feel like their life is just a little bit better after every episode. "In a very real way…I really am chasing beauty," he says. "I want to move people. I want to shake people a little bit and make them present in their moment."
And how does he choose what stories to tell? He works on the assumption that if he likes something, other people will too. "Ultimately, I learned to trust that if I'm fascinated and moved by something, that I have to go with that and hope that the listener is too," he says.
His family influences and hometown of Providence, Rhode Island continues to be a keen reminder to stay grounded in the present. "So the landscape had these ghosts and I had this sense that you have your time in a place," he says. "I was always very interested in thinking about my parents as young people and thinking about their parents as young people and the time in which they got to do that."