Ever been embarrassed to forget someone’s name? Mislaid your keys or flummoxed as to why you’ve gone upstairs? In this Audible Original Podcast Derren Brown and a whole bevvy of experts unravel the mysteries of memory to help you better understand how it functions and to improve your powers of recall. Over the course of eight episodes they combine cutting edge scientific research with powerful real-life stories and entertaining memory tests. And Derren unveils a variety of simple techniques to help you build a better memory.

Episode 1: Memory – A Will Of Its Own

Our memory is a creative, rather than a mechanical process so we shouldn’t be surprised at its lack of precision. Memory is not a single brain function but a series of processes which evolved for different purposes and which don’t always work in harmony. So even the clearest of memories are invariably flawed, unreliable…and often downright false. But by understanding how memory works we can find ways to improve it.

Episode 2: How Good is Your Memory?

What does it mean to have a ‘good’ or adequate memory? We’ll gauge our abilities with simple tests, debunk the idea of photographic memory and learn how we’re all susceptible to false memories. Derren explains how engaging our senses can help us better encode and retrieve memories and introduces us to the ancient technique of Memory Palaces.

Episode 3: How Memory Works

We explore how our brain is made up of billions of neurons, each of which can make thousands of synaptic connections with other neurons. Derren tests the limits of short-term memory and we discover how ‘chunking’ techniques can extend our capacity. And we are introduced to a part of the brain vital to memory - the hippocampus - and find out how, with the right kind of memory exercise, we can make it bigger.

Episode 4: How To Learn

Our ability to learn depends on memory, so understanding how it works best can help us learn faster and remember longer. We discover the importance of motivation and paying attention, the value of ‘spaced learning’ and why self-tests are vastly superior to reviewing. Leading actor Adrian Lester tells us how he learns his lines and Derren reveals his technique to never forget a date or a number.

Episode 5: The Art of Forgetting

We all bemoan how much we forget but forgetting is an essential tool in making our memory more effective and useful. Our clever brains sift out most of the information that bombards us and retains only what is useful. To glimpse what life would be like without forgetting, we meet a woman with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory who is plagued by detailed memories from every day of her life.

Episode 6: The Rise And Fall Of Memory

Our memory isn’t constant, it waxes and wanes across our lifespan. And it’s helpful to know when your memory isn’t firing on all cylinders and what you can do about it. We discover how memory develops in infants, what the ‘reminiscence bump’ is and for those of a mature age there’s good news; research shows the reason why we are prone to memory issues as we age is more to do with accumulated knowledge than any intrinsic loss of cognitive function.

Episode 7: Memory In The Digital Age

In modern life, rather than using our memories, we increasingly rely on our digital devices for information, navigation and reminders. Derren explores the positive and negative effects that ‘outsourcing’ our memory to phones and satnavs can have on our cognitive abilities and discovers how you can avoid losing your memory in the digital age.

Episode 8: You Must Remember This

Packed full of lifestyle advice to boost your memory, in this final episode Derren recaps techniques like mnemonics, introduces us to the Body Method and reveals how elite military training can be used to help us remember things. And we look at how developments in medical science could make improving your memory much easier in the future.