Joshua Foer: Moonwalking with Einstein

Japanese mnemonist Akira Haraguchi successfully memorized and recited (in 16 hours, 28 minutes) 83,431 digits of the mathematical constant pi. In a record-breaking 1 minute, 40 seconds, journalist Joshua Foer memorized and recalled perfectly the exact order of two full decks of playing cards. Although jaw-dropping, these feats aren't the domain of idiot savants. Foer's fascination with mental athletes led to a globe-trotting, riveting exploration of the science and art of memory, chronicled in his book Moonwalking with Einstein. The book weaves together colorful characters, a cultural history of memory, and Foer's yearlong training and ultimate triumph as 2006 US Memory Champion. In conversation with WBEZ Re:sound host Gwen Macsai, Foer recounts ancient memorization techniques, elaborate memory palaces, and today's reliance on electronic memory.
This program was generously underwritten by Annette W. Turow and was sponsored in part by the Chicago Community Trust.

[@iyeoluwaayandokun4213]

Great guy. Very level headed and articulate. Best wishes.

[@SuperGracie72]

Love this guy. He is super engaging and an extremely gracious guest.

[@triplea007]

Beautiful job with this interview, both for Joshua and the moderator. Very charismatic and well articulated. Thanks for uploading.

[@ProxCyde]

He's so spot on when it comes to how we learn in schools, and what we could do about it, yet the audience just laugh about it, and doesn't seem to really take it seriously. Ignorance?

[@AlbertKimMusic]

relatability

[@djmartingtl]

@RapOet He has heard of Stephen Wiltshire and writes about him in his book, "Moonwalking With Einstein". In the notes section at the end of the book Foer states that Wiltshire would be the closest thing to a person with a photographic memory but even he is limited to only certain kinds of objects and scenes, namely architecture and cars. He cant', say, look at a page of the dictionary and then instantly recall what was on it.

[@nephildevil]

interesting that quote about how that thinking actually is deciding what we can forget

[@SamuelDaram]

Thank you 'ChicagoHumanities' for uploading this Josh Foer talk. I just read 'Moonwalking With Einstein. An amazingly unique book. Thank you Josh. (Is he related to Jonathan Safran Foer?)

[@viruchamp]

Jonathan is his brother.

[@billyraybar]

Although these phenomena are not well understood, it is the consensus of science that no one has a photographic memory -- at least what most people think of as photographic.

[@Cubanuel]

He's referring to research that was done at harvard trying to find anyone who had something like a photographic memory. It has been ongoing- nothing even close has come by...

[@porridge171]

I agree. I am currently entering high school, and I hope to rely on this to get A's. Then I hope to show other people the power of this to help them with school.

[@liiono]

.

[@danielhornak]

did you get A’s?

[@porridge171]

Yes. Got two full ride scholarships I can’t believe someone commented on this lol

[@porridge171]

That was 10 years ago

[@Suro_One]

There are entire movies on KZbin if you look around..

[@JayVixD]

Thumbs up to Joshua Foer / Thumbs down to the woman. 37 seconds into the clip and I could entirely agree with you. It also seems like she's trying so hard to remember her interview questions (even if she has a notepad on front of her)

[@japhalpha]

Tl;dr - Visuals + Spaced Repetition = Memory goes BURRRRRRRRR

[@Kenchan1337]

i think he's just trying to point out that if you become very demanding of fotograpic memory, in terms of defining what it is exactly you reach a threshold. for example one might argue that being able to remember a book letter by letter in a short time = having such memory. another person might argue you can only claim having such memory if you can always reproduce an image of your choosing at a chosen time: so colours, positions of a large number of objects, events occuring between these, etc..

[@Goldensquare.]

In case people are wondering, you can use this memory technique to memorise paragraphs, articles, and essays as well. Once you do this , you yourself will develop your own ideas to spice it up.

[@jhanira3044]

Awe sweet!

[@shahrezqureshi]

Rohit Joshi Hey, I actually am wondering, how can I practically apply this mnemonic technique to remember, let's see, an essay on literary criticism.

[@caldwell477]

Rohit Joshi Okay stupid question in reference to his book on page 91 It talks about how Lukas had partied until dawn and how it was the night before his biggest exam of the year and how he woke up and learned everything for the exam in a memory blitz. What was the exam? and what did he mean by a memory blitz? I presume is was an exam similar to the LSAT in America? and memory blitz more detail please? How does one just wake up hours away from an exam and just come up with the palaces and apply them and ace the exam?

[@colbyblack2045]

I know this is a year ago, but did you need to remember the essay word for word, or the basic concept of the essay?

[@Goldensquare.]

It work both ways my friend. Some people are forced to mug up the tech stuff which they can't understand. So by learning word by word means creating a vivid imagery in your mind which you will be able to write it down on a piece of paper but won't be able to explain.

[@SamuelDaram]

Oh really! Joshua Foer and Jonathan Safran are brothers. Wow!

[@123456cephiro]

i want to know the last question :P

[@StarBreakerXXII]

Acknowledge the point that was made instead of dismissing it.

[@zacharykeener1990]

He seems a little harsh on the participants of memory contestants and those who want to improve their memory as a hobby.

[@lettycontreras7857]

12:00

[@sliskekeeling]

56:55 in case someone wants to check it out : www.memrise.com/

[@coleputerbaugh]

Yes, that's his brother. He's part of quite an accomplished family. He mentions it in this video: /watch?v=1-E9MMTciBo&feature=player_embedded#!

[@pmemory2013]

Foer, is a great man.

[@Hgxdx3]

the description says idiot savants, the hell is up with that.

[@andr3s306]

In the book he talks about people who have suffered from brain injuries to the left side of the brain experience drawbacks in certain functions, but turn into narrow savants on a particular subject like art or remembering phonebooks. So in summary, they have a mental disability (idiot) but the "benefits" greatly overshadow their mental disabilities (savant). These are very rare though. What the description means is that someone who uses memory tricks is still not at the level of an idiot savant because their brains work very differently. Idiot is an offensive word today but in the past it was used by psychiatrists to refer to someone with intellectual disabilities, somewhat like the word retarded.

[@Ken.-]

green ... socks?

[@Brandxandra]

she keeps interupting him and then has no idea what she wants to say... bad hosting.

[@NickDolgy]

And, ironically, she started the interview with a memory champion by forgetting how the book's dust jacket was called. LOL

[@luxyfck]

This was quite interesting. However, she was not a very good host. She was rudely interrupting throughout the entire thing.

[@QuestionEverythingButWHY]

“It is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human. To make sense of the world, we must filter it. "To think," Borges writes, "is to forget.” ― Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein

[@Merrida100]

What strikes me is this woman is interviewing a guest who is known for things like memory techniques and the importance of paying attention and focusing on the subject at hand. Yet, when he's speaking, she's rifling through papers, not maintaining eye contact, looking bored and bothered. It's discourteous and rude. Meanwhile, he remains the perfect gentleman and polite guest.

[@marwenbrini8936]

just remake it, he's got a lot to say and this chick totally blew it

[@Kenchan1337]

dude, did you notice he's national champion. your question just shows you have no idea of what you just watched.

[@qwer7616]

i was a atletic nerd gamer who tried to commet suicide for a broken hand XD now my memory sucks (suffered knife cuts, suffocation, 5 days without eating and 2 with no water in the cold and rain) Oo what u suggest for me?haha

[@qwer7616]

im a damn brazllian and seeing this and the description, a bullet is the right way

[@SupremeIntentionCrew]

She just feels threatened. That's all.

[@TheMightyTed]

BLURB WOMAN, THE WORD IS BLURB!

[@16yearoldwhiteboy]

it kind of disturbs me how he talks about Kim Peek and then 10 minutes later says that "no one has a photographic memory".. Have you heard of this man.. He had 98% recall and he could read about 25 times faster than the above average reader (10,000 wpm compared and the average of 300 or 400). Also Art Tatum had a memory for music such that he could hear a song once and play it back with variations.. can anyone explain this phenomena?

[@Ken.-]

A true photographic memory would allow for a person to be able to recall a sentence they saw both forwards and backwards. No one has shown that they can do that.

[@theRapoet]

He's very helpful, but he's misinforming when he says. 49:33 that Photographic memory is a myth because Scientific literature has not found it. More importantly, he demonstrates a flaw with POPULAR science, namely that it CAN show something that's fact, but it CANNOT show something is fiction. Just because a popular journal hasn't found it, doesn't mean it's not real. He should look into Stephen Wiltshire (I think he's even on youtube)

[@Merrida100]

I just discovered this guy and have been looking him up to learn more about him. I really enjoy him as a speaker and I like his presentations. I've seen several vids so far. But really,....this host? She's dreadful. She's annoying. Even irritating. You can tell she's feeling superior and talking down with regards to the subject matter. I don't know who she is or anything about her, but if she's this annoying in all her "interviews," I dread coming across her again. Ever.