.The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

This episode was originally released in 2016 in the days after the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It is re-released every year on the anniversary of the incident.

Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

On June 13th, 2025, I'll do a special, one-night-only live show at the Tribeca Audio Festival in New York City, joined by two of the audiobook's readers: Carrie Coon and Lili Taylor! www.thememorypalace.us/events.

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, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com.

Music

• Pale by Akira Koresuma
• The Things Left Unsaid by Caleb Burhans
• VIII. Juliet by Matthew Bourne
• Dream House III: After Dust from Mary Ellen Child's beautiful album, Ethel.
• Here I Am, Two Warships, by Spirituals

Notes

• You can listen to the whole, original recording here, and an enhanced, speed corrected version, here.
• One of the best places to learn about Herb's life is this documentary.

Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

During mid-May, 2025, I'm doing a Midwestern book tour, with stops in Minneapolis, Cincinatti, Indianapolis, and Chicago. Find out more at www.thememorypalace.us/events.

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, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com.

Music

• That Moment by Antonymes
• Nocturne by Sololi
• Watching it Unfold by Lawrence English

Notes

• You can access the self-produced history of the Sophie Bibb Chapter of the UDC here.
• The Alabama Encyclopedia site does a nice job with some of this stuff.
• You might want to check out Caroline Janney's book, Burying the Dead but Not the Past: Ladies' Mermorial Associations and the Lost Cause.

Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

During mid-April, 2025, I'm doing a southern book tour, with stops in San Antonio, Houston, Gainesville, Montgomery, New Orleans, and Oxford. Find out more at www.thememorypalace.us/events.

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, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com.

Music

• Hallway Rug and a bit of Watering Plants by Omni Gardens
• Dripping Icicles from Lalo Schiffrin's great score to The Fox.
• Girl Talk by the Howard Roberts Quartet
• Jules et Therese from the score to Jules et Jim
• Franz Waxman's main title theme to Woman of the Year
• Your Love from the legend, Frankie Knuckles
• Then we go back and forth between Joe Morello's Timeless and Lara Downes playing Leonard Bernstein's Big Stuff.

Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

During mid-April, 2025, I'm doing a southern book tour, with stops in San Antonio, Houston, Gainesville, Montgomery, New Orleans, and Oxford. Find out more at www.thememorypalace.us/events.

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, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com.

Music

• La Copla from Atahualpa Yupanqui
• Yes, Brick by Brick and Waende by Caeys
• Space in Between by Federico Albanese
• Kieke by Shida Shihabi

Notes

• My favorite work on Mays is James Hirsch's glorious biography, Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend. I also recommend John Klima's Willie's Boys, about the Black Baron's 1948 season.
• If you're looking to get more context for the city during those years, I'd recommend Diane McWhorter's history, Carry Me Home.

Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

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, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com.

Music

• Two from Lambert: Fremd and The Open
• Plantasia from Mort Garson's amazing, ridiculous album of the same name.
• Two from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans' score to Christine: Paranoia and Newsroom.

Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

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, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com.

Music

• Pockets of Light by Ludomyr Melnyk
• All in Circles and Janvie by Shida Shahabi
• Between Trees by Akria Kosemura

Notes

• There are a million things to read about Stonewall, but the thing that I feel like deepened my understanding enough was The New York Public Library's The Stonewall Reader. Particularly the audiobook. Couldn't recommend it enough.

Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

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, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com.

Order Eliza McGraw's wonderful new book, Astride: Women, Horses and a Partnership that Changed America.

This episode originally aired in February of 2021.

Music

• Unsayable by Brambles.
• Kola - Lighthouse Version by amiina
• A Nearer Sun by the Westerlies
• Duet, a Steve Reich composition, performed by Daniel Hope.
• Reading a Wave by Arp
• April by Kanazu Tomoyuki
• Latent Sonata by Brian McBride

Notes

• The oral history mentioned in this episode is available through the Smithsonian Instittion’’s archives.