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Our memories make us who we are and, as with anything involving the human brain, they’re pretty complicated. This week, we’ve collected some of the most fascinating stories that break down why we remember (and forget) the things we do, and the profound impact this has on our lives.

In a Perpetual Present
Erika Hayasaki, Wired
The strange case of the woman who can’t remember her past—or imagine her future.

The Movie that Doesn’t Exist and the Redditors Who Think It Does
Amelia Tait, New Statesman
Over the years, hundreds of people online have shared memories of a cheesy Nineties movie called “Shazaam.” There is no evidence that such a film was ever made. What does this tell us about the quirks of collective memory?

11 Simple Ways to Improve Your Memory
Kathy Benjamin, Mental Floss
Long-term, immediate, and habitual methods for keeping your memories fresh and clear.

Why We Forget Most of the Books We Read
Julie Beck, The Atlantic
For many, the experience of consuming culture is like filling up a bathtub, soaking in it, and then watching the water run down the drain. It might leave a film in the tub, but the rest is gone. 

This Is Where Your Childhood Memories Went
Ferris Jabr, Nautilus
Your brain needs to forget in order to grow.

How Long Can an Event Hold Humanity’s Attention? There’s an Equation for That.
Eleanor Cummins, Popular Science
Societies forget, and this physicist wants to know why.

A Quiet Revolution in Botany: Plants Form Memories
Sarah Laskow, Atlas Obscura
Of the possible plant talents that have gone under-recognized, memory is one of the most intriguing.

A Stranger in the House of Memory
Louise Fabiani, Pacific Standard
Of the many experts who figured in Henry Molaison’s life, one man would change him into amnesiac patient H.M., but two women ensured he would never be forgotten.

To Grieve Is to Carry Another Time                           
Matthew Salesses, Longreads
A writer considers the impact of his wife’s passing, and other factors, on his experience as a human passing through the fourth dimension.

The Time Capsule That’s as Big as Human History
Michael Paterniti, GQ
When the apocalypse comes, survivors (and aliens!) will be happy that Martin Kunze built this place.

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No one wants to find themselves embroiled in a scam or scandal. But when it comes to reading about them, who can resist? In today’s Summer Fridays, we’re traveling inside the minds of con artists, grifters, victims, and the (mostly) exonerated. Ready for a trip?

Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It
Jessica Pressler,The Cut
The story of New York City’s most notorious faux heiress-turned-inmate, Anna Delvey, and the wild antics that won her intrigue—and tens of thousands of dollars.

Secret Life of a Con Man
Dustin Grinnell, Narratively
The son of a bank robber and sibling of a psychopath explains how he found his own calling scamming a litany of unsuspecting suckers.

Psychopathic, Narcissistic Machiavellians
Maria Konnikova, Slate
Are con artists clinical psychopaths—or are they just slightly more devious versions of our more conniving selves?

The Grand Schemes of the Petty Grifter
Guy Lawson, GQ
That old adage that you can be anything you want? Well, Jeremy Wilson has lived it for years, crisscrossing the country and inventing new identities. A war hero, an MIT grad, a Hollywood journalist, an IRA operative—Jeremy has claimed to be all those things and more. And oh, what a mess he’s made.

“He Actually Believes He Is Khalid”: The Amazing 30-Year Odyssey of a Counterfeit Saudi Prince
Mark Seal, Vanity Fair
Investors all over the world fell for the schemes of the man who called himself Khalid bin al-Saud. But the truth turned out to be more incredible than the lie.

America’s Most Admired Lawbreaker
Steven Brill, Highline
Over the course of 20 years, Johnson & Johnson created a powerful drug, promoted it illegally to children and the elderly, covered up the side effects and made billions of dollars. This is the inside story.

How to Put a Fake Island on the Map
Genevieve Carlton, Atlas Obscura
Frisland never existed, but for centuries, people wanted to believe that it did.

The College-Admissions Scandal and the Banality of Scamming
Naomi Fry, The New Yorker
These stories allow us to vicariously live out our worst urges, but they also present us with open-and-shut arcs that show crime doesn’t pay (in a world that, more often than not, suggests that it does).

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