The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show and independent media, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate.

A note on notes: We’d much rather you just went into each episode of The Memory Palace cold. And just let the story take you where it well. So, we don’t suggest looking into the show notes first.

Music:

• Flowering Jasmine as performed by Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Batica.

• Kaspburger by Clogs

• 20 (Lichen) by Berndan Eder Ensemble

• Fall Again by Duval Timothy, Lil Silva and Melanie Faye.

• Wurzer by H.Takahashi

• Bone Collector by Julian Lage and Chris Etheridge

• Titan’s Island by Ancient Oceans

Notes:

• My favorite account (among many) of Richard Etheridge and the story of the Pea Island Surfmen is Fire on the Beach by David Wright and David Zoby.

The British House of Commons has been called the Best Club in Town due to the fact that there is a 1,000-gallon vat of Scotch whiskey located in the cellar. However, I prefer to think of it as a roach motel. Because technically, once you are elected to Parliament, you can’t leave. It is actually illegal to resign from the House of Commons. Yet, people seemingly do all the time. Learn more about the convoluted way you can quit the House of Commons on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Every year around June, millions of people will wear robes and put on funny flat hats to receive their university degrees. But why do they all wear robes, and what’s the deal with that flat hat, and why does the hat have a frilly thing hanging off of it? And why do we give out degrees named after unmarried men? And why are some people called a doctor if they don’t have any patients? Learn more about the history of academic degrees on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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In 1942, two and a half years into the Second World War, the British were facing a problem. While the British Navy mostly commanded the Atlantic, the Germans had one significant advantage: The battleship Tirpitz. Rather than attack the Tirpitz head-on, they came up with an alternate plan which would effectively limit the effectiveness of the battleship. Learn more about The St. Nazaire Raid on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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