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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to memorize something that is worth memorizing. Committing

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Speaker 1: a meaningful passage or poem to memory will help you

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Speaker 1: appreciate it more and make it accessible to you at

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Speaker 1: any point. Education has obviously changed a lot over the

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Speaker 1: past one hundred and fifty years. Kids used to need

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Speaker 1: to do a lot of memorization. I always enjoyed the

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Speaker 1: scenes from the Laura Ingalls Wilder books of her at

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Speaker 1: about age fifteen memorizing a long passage about history and

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Speaker 1: reciting it for the townspeople. I know that my parents

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Speaker 1: growing up had to memorize the Heidelberg Catechism as part

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Speaker 1: of their religious studies. We do a lot less memorizing

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Speaker 1: these days, which in some cases makes sense. We have

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Speaker 1: the technology to call up just about anything anywhere, at

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Speaker 1: any time. But even if we don't need it as much,

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Speaker 1: the human memory is truly an amazing thing. You might

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Speaker 1: think you don't know many things from memory, but if

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Speaker 1: I played the opening chords of a top rated song

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Speaker 1: from some random year you were in high school, there

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Speaker 1: is a high probability that you could sing most of

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Speaker 1: the lyrics. I'm also guessing you know a great many

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Speaker 1: Christmas carols by heart. Those tend to be songs people

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Speaker 1: sing repeatedly. When you know something by heart, it is

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Speaker 1: more accessible no matter the circumstances. You don't need to

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Speaker 1: rely on notes, or internet access or anything else. That's

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Speaker 1: why I committed the various versions of my time management

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Speaker 1: speech to memory. If I'm there, the speech can happen,

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Speaker 1: whatever the screen situation, whatever the room looks like, whether

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Speaker 1: there's a podium, if the power goes out, if my

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Speaker 1: laptop died two seconds before, it's not a problem. When

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Speaker 1: my family gathered for Christmas this year, we could just

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Speaker 1: stand around the kitchen singing carols. No need to hunt

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Speaker 1: for songbooks or anything else. That is the beauty of

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Speaker 1: knowing things by heart. So why not try memorizing something

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Speaker 1: worth memorizing. You'll get to know these words better and

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Speaker 1: stretch your brain in a new way. If you follow

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Speaker 1: a particular religion, there are no doubts sacred passages associated

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Speaker 1: with that faith. Why not choose one that speaks to

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Speaker 1: you and aim to be able to recite it. You

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Speaker 1: could also try a poem. Visit the Poetry Foundation's website

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Speaker 1: and find a reasonably short one that feels special to you.

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Speaker 1: Or you could watch YouTube clips from poetry slams and

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Speaker 1: see which poems people tend to perform over and over again.

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Speaker 1: Those might go well with memorizing. Or you might choose

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Speaker 1: to memorize something just because it's fun. I memorized a

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Speaker 1: few stanzas of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven years ago

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Speaker 1: because his word play is just fantastic. Once upon a midnight, dreary,

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Speaker 1: while I pondered, weak and weary over many a quaint

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Speaker 1: and curious volume of forgotten lore, The internal rhyming scheme

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Speaker 1: keeps the beat moving along. There are lots of strategies

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Speaker 1: for memorizing things, but generally you need to read it

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Speaker 1: over many times and then check if you can recite

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Speaker 1: parts of it. You will have to check to remind

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Speaker 1: yourself if you were accurate. Eventually you'll remember certain words

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Speaker 1: that begin a phrase, and then the phrase itself tends

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Speaker 1: to make internal sense, so that part will be easier.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes people make lists of the first words of phrases,

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Speaker 1: or even just the first letters to jog their memory.

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Speaker 1: Then eventually you just practice enough and it feels easier.

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Speaker 1: The more time you give yourself, the more clear it

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Speaker 1: will all be. The good news is that if you

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Speaker 1: have things memorized, you can always entertain yourself no matter

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Speaker 1: the circumstances, or you could entertain others if you are

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Speaker 1: suddenly called upon to perform in a talent show. Now, granted,

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Speaker 1: that is not likely to happen, but there is something

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Speaker 1: fun about a challenge. Our brains could probably use some

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Speaker 1: more exercise. Memorizing isn't easy, but it is also something

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Speaker 1: that the vast majority of people could do if they try,

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Speaker 1: So why not memorize something worth memorizing. What you memorize

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Speaker 1: is always with you, and if you choose well, you

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Speaker 1: can make your internal brain landscape feel a lot more rich.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

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Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

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Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast Tasks

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,