How to remember anything with Ed Cooke

Ed Cooke will never forget your birthday. As a Grandmaster of Memory, Ed Cooke flexes his memory muscle on the daily. He's won countless competitions, memorised the first few books of Paradise Lost , and spent the majority of the lockdown throwing experimental online parties.

You can listen to episode 14 here.

Memory Palace Technique

On today's Braincare podcast, Ed Cooke explains why we have trouble remembering things and why memory is the polar opposite of perception. Plus, we learn how to deck out your memory palace with evocative imagery that will make remembering anything a breeze.

Things are bright and interesting and violent and evoke emotions. You remember them automatically, you know, no one forgets a stampede of bison.

Is photographic memory a real thing?

It's intuitive that events associated with great stories are more easily remembered, but for repetitive data we often find ourselves wishing we had a photographic memory. Newsflash, listeners, Ed Cooke's got a bombshell to drop on that topic:

Photographic memory doesn't just not exist, it's actually inconceivable.

Podcast episode takeaways

In this first episode with Ed Cooke we will cover:

• Why do we forget people's names?

• The differences between remembering events and detailed lists

• Do mnemonics really work?

• Memory palaces: why it's still the best technique out there

• Why imagination is fundamental to memory

• What's Anthony Costa from Blue got to do with the Heights ingredient list?

Listen to the full episode here —and subscribe to The Braincare Podcast to get more bitesize interviews with the world's leading scientists and experts.

Want to hear more brain-related insights? Check out our previous episode with neuroscientist Gina Rippon on General and Mental Health.